Crime mystery set in 1946 Clapham, LONDON
Mystery set mainly in the CARIBBEAN
14th October 2022
The Cruise by Catherine Cooper, mystery set mainly in the Caribbean.
This is a dual timeline novel set in present day – moving forwards from New Year 2022 – and also set across the early 2000s. All aboard the Immanis luxury liner, 18 decks high (which makes it taller than the Eiffel Tower) and capable of carrying 6000 passengers. Immanis has 2 meanings in Latin: huge, vast, immense (no doubt about that being spot on) but also it can mean: inhuman, savage brutal (also not far off the mark, either!). The name is a harbinger, given the latter meaning, of things to come…
On board, there is at least one restaurant with a Michelin star (there are 25 restaurants in total), huge luxurious suites with monogrammed bedding to die for (and yes, there is of course death) and all manner of luxury and profligacy, probably beyond most people’s wildest dreams. Thus the scene is set, interactions between characters commence and things kick off when Lola, dancer and occasional acrobat, is seen to hurtle to her death from the ship into the sea. The ship does turn back but finds nothing. Then the vessel is due a lay over and the crew diminishes in size, with a few stalwarts holding the fort, but death is never far away.
Given the title, it was a bit of a surprise, then, to discover a significant portion of the unfolding story is devoted to young Anna, who finds herself in hospital, injured and having lost her memory. Her story takes place in Scotland and London. Her life has been difficult at many levels, living with her father, homeschooled, not being allowed to venture far from their home – there is clearly a backstory which is soon revealed.
The earlier story clearly feeds into the what is happening in the present day aboard the Immanis, and there are any number of twists and turns as the novel comes to its conclusion. I read this by the pool and this is a very good and well written book for that purpose, it bowls along with red herrings and surprises right up to the end. As a reader one might come away thinking that cruise ships are a dangerous place – the author says that the novel was inspired by the images of cruise ships laid up off the UK coast during Covid and she wants to stress that, while people do occasionally go missing, it remains one of the safest forms of travel!
Tina for the TripFiction Team
If you are yearning for more novels set on the high seas – #shiplit – then do trawl our post bringing together curated titles.
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I read ‘The Chalet’, Catherine’s first novel, so it looks as though I have a couple more to catch up on, I hadn’t noticed those slip through!
Cruising definitely isn’t for me, not because I think that cruise ships are dangerous, but simply because being stuck in any kind of confined space with the same people, who I may not like, for days on end, is not my idea of fun. Also, the thought of being rounded up at a stop-off when I still had more I wanted to see, would be a bit frustrating. And last, but not least, I have a fear of water and cannot swim, so it’s terra firma for me I’m afraid! 🙂