A thirty-year-old priceless jewel theft and a man that really has been stabbed in the back. Can a 52-year-old, slightly plump housewife unravel the mystery in time to save herself from jail?When housewife, Patricia, catches her husband in bed with her best friend, her reaction isn’t to rant and yell. Instead, she calmly empties the bank accounts and boards the first cruise ship in nearby … in nearby Southampton.
There she meets the unfairly handsome captain and her appointed butler for the trip – that’s what you get when the only room available is a royal suite!
But with most of the money gone and sleeping off a gin-fuelled pity party for one, she wakes to find herself accused of murder; she was seen leaving the bar with the victim and her purse is in his cabin.
Certain that all she did last night was fall into bed, a race against time begins as she tries to work out what happened and clear her name. But the deputy captain, the man responsible for safety and security onboard, has confined her to her cabin and has no interest in her version of events. Worse yet, as she begins to dig into the dead man’s past, she uncovers a secret – there’s a giant stolen sapphire somewhere and people are prepared to kill to get their hands on it.
With only a Jamaican butler faking an English accent and a pretty gym instructor to help, she must piece together the clues and do it fast. Or when she gets off the ship in St Kitts, she’ll be in cuffs!
The Missing Sapphire of Zangrabar is the first in a 10-book series as Patricia Fisher rediscovers herself, uncovers a skill for unravelling mysteries, and from the ashes of her marriage, becomes the phoenix she was always meant to be.
Don’t miss this funny, cozy mystery series.
Author guarantee: This series contains no cussing and no graphic descriptions of sex of violence.
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Funny, light hearted murder mystery with a wonderful ending!
I’m working my way backward in this series. I’ve read and enjoyed many of the recent Patricia Fisher books but didn’t really know, except by inference, how she got where she is today. It was fun to go back to the beginning to see how she got her start. Very enjoyable.
I received an ARC copy of the book in return for an honest review.
Fantastic introduction to the series!
I’d been reading the books out of order but they are still wonderful as a stand alone read. But this one starts off the Patricia Fisher books and explains how our wonderful sleuth became a sleuth. Her bravery and quirks are very endearing, as aren’t we all a bit hesitant to jump into the deep end of the pool for the very first time taking a swim? Loved every minute of it!
This mystery will keep you on your toes.
We first meet Patricia, a middle-aged woman who finds out her husband is having an affair with none other than her best friend. From the start, her character is a little self-deprecating and unsure. Throughout the book, we’re able to see Patricia grow into a stronger and more confident person, which is nice to see. When she decides to take a cruise around the world, her journey really begins. On her path to self-discovery, she meets Jermaine, her butler on the cruise, and Barbie, the fitness guru. Together, the three of them work to help Patricia grow and change by showing her what she’s capable of. When she’s accused of stealing and murder, that’s when the story takes off.
The overall storyline has a lot of ups and downs with many “OMG” moments. When a jewel thief is found stabbed to death in his room, and the finger is pointed at Patricia as the killer, she has to figure out where the stolen items are and who killed the thief all while under house arrest. There are crazy antics, a few laughs, and some outrageous scenes. The reader is taken for a ride, but it is a satisfying one.
If you are looking for mystery, personal growth, and unpredictability, then The Missing Sapphire of Zangrabar will be a good choice for you.
Hurrah for Patricia Fisher! I don’t know if I’m more impressed with her sleuthing abilities or her physical fitness endurance. The author takes the old story of a cheating husband, a housewife who has no clue and let herself go and give it a fantastic twist. But he doesn’t go easy on poor Mrs. Fisher. Nope, she has more stuff thrown at her that would back any other woman hide in the corner and cry. Patricia Fisher won’t be bested and with the help of some unusual friends, solves the mystery and makes the decision on how she will move forward with her life. Go back to the cheating hubby? You must read to find out.
I bought this book as a set of the first four Patricia Fischer Cozy Mysteries, but I want to review each one after I read it.
A new life begins for Patricia Fisher when she finds out that her husband has been sleeping with her best friend.
Patricia’s husband is an accountant and says he doe enough of that at work, so Patricia is in charge of their banking and saving accounts. So she removes all the money from their joint account and creates an account just in her name. She figures this is the best form of revenge she could do.
She packs up three suitcases and gets in her car and starts driving. She has always wanted to go on a cruise, but he husband hasn’t. So she drive down to the port where ships leave from and come back to. There is one that is loading now and she thinks it would be great to go on it. There is a little office off to the side of the parking lot that has a sign saying they sell cruise tickets, she goes in and they tell her they only have one room available and that it is probably the most expensive one. She asks what it would cost to cruise around the world on it, and it would take almost all the money she has, so she walks out. She then decides she deserves it and goes back in and gets the ticket. She is having trouble getting her suitcases onboard and she meets the captain and shows him her ticket and he gets two guys to get her luggage and he escorts her to her room. Which isn’t just a room but has a kitchen and has a butler who sleeps in the next bedroom and he is only her butler.
She then goes down to the bar to have a drink, gin and tonic. She has more than one then another man offers to buy her a drink and he gets a champagne bottle. Well Patricia has become quite Gypsy so the man she was sitting with Jack, escorts her back to her room, but not before he tells her he is a jewel thief. Once he gets her back to her suite, she assumes he leaves, because she falls asleep immediately. When she wakes up she realizes her purse is gone and it had her wedding rings in it. She gets her butler to go with her to Jack’s room. When they get there Jack is dead in the floor with a knife in his back. Just as they start to leave to go tell the Captain, the deputy captain, Mr. Schoomer shows up declares the room a crime science and that Patricia is the killer. He puts her under “suite” arrest except to go to the gym with Barbie to exercise. I don’t want to give anything away so I am not telling any more about the book, but this new cozy mystery series is fun and shows that us older women can do more than we are given credit for. I LOVED the book and will be reading the next one soon. I am trying to rotate between 4-5 books or series, so I will be jumping back and forth between them, but I will review each book as soon after reading it that I can. Everyone should really enjoy reading this book.
The Missing Sapphire of Zangrabar: A Patricia Fisher Mystery Patricia Fisher Mysteries, Book 1, my second read/listen from author Steve Higgs. Well written & enjoyable. Narrator Stevie Zimmerman’s voice was perfect for this book and added to the listening enjoyment. I was given an Audible copy of this book & am voluntarily reviewing it. (RIP Marley January 20, 2014 – July 24, 2018).
An absolutely delightful book to read. Fast paced with interesting characters and easy to read. Go Patricia!!! Well done you for emptying the bank accounts and taking life by the scruff of the neck. What a start to your new life – excitement, frustration, amazement and a new found knowledge that life does not have to be predictable and boring. You’ve solved a mystery, made new friends and I can’t wait until your next stop on the cruise to see what you dabble in next. Well written and very entertaining Mr. Higgs!
Steve Higgs has another winner! Laugh yourself silly while glued to the story and the suspense. Incredibly funny dialog with characters who truly are. Plot revolves around Mrs Fisher, a fiftysomething ordinary lady with a not unheard of problem. But her response to that problem is to book an around the world cruise in the finest suite on the grandest cruise ship. She even gets her very own butler! But the next morning it’s all gone horribly wrong and she is accused of murder and has to solve it against all odds. Great fun!
Stevie Zimmerman is fantastic as the narrator who manages the equivalent of a straight face!
Patricia Fisher is an average wife in East Malling when she catches her husband, Charlie, in bed with her best friend, Maggie. She realizes that, for her accountant husband, revenge is best served green— money — so in short order she empties their bank accounts and books herself the poshest suite for a three-month Caribbean tour on the soon-departing Aurelia.
As she’s adjusting to the fact that the suite comes with a private butler, the courtly young Jamaican Jermaine, a suave gentleman named Jack invites her to dine with him. Over the course of several hours, she consumes far too much alcohol, and as Jack helps her back to her suite, he also relieves her of her purse.
When she realizes she’s been robbed the next morning, she and Jermaine head for Jack’s room, where they find her purse … and Jack’s body, complete with a knife buried in his back. As they’re leaving, though, they encounter deputy captain Mr. Schooner, who declares the room a crime scene … and then, in short order, proclaims Patricia the killer, to be locked in her suite under armed guard until the ship reaches St. Kitts.
However, Jermaine has a butler’s entrance, and through it, he and Barbie, the ship’s trainer, help Patricia escape to sleuth for the real murderer. They prowl in search of a mysterious man Patricia first noticed during her boozy dinner, even slipping off the ship with Patricia disguised as Jermaine’s mother (which he protests as “culturally insensitive”), until they’re able to nab the killer and prove her innocence.
But how will Patricia answer Charlie’s pleas to reunite?
Steve Higgs’ new mystery series is funny, fascinating, and proof that, for women of a certain age, life begins when you board the cruise ship.
Love Steve Higgs’ books and this new series did not disappoint. Patricia started out as a betrayed wife and moved into a strong, smart woman role. I love her and her side kicks already and this is only the first book. Can’t get enough of Steve’s stories and wait anxiously for the next to publish in all of his series.
Finding her closest friend and her husband in bed together leads Patricia to follow her wildest, long buried impulse to see the world. Having settled into being a doormat style house-cleaner, it’s a big step into the only berth available on the liner–the royal Windsor Suite. But she finds the gumption and the savvy to fill the role admirably, and manages to solve some unexpected problems for her new friends among the crew, including her incredibly supportive butler and fitness trainer.
There’s a rat on board who’s willing to murder for a piece of shiny stone. The new, improved Patricia cannot let this go; it’s too much like her materialistic estranged hubby for her to tolerate, especially when she’s dined at the same table as the deceased.
Higgs continues the ‘cozy mystery’ genre in this unexpected and empowering new series with no loss of empathy for human variety.