She’s over fifty, overweight, and in way over her head!What could be worse than having a gangster onboard the world’s finest cruise liner? Having several of them obviously! The Aurelia plays host to an underworld crime boss and his bodyguards, but when the gangster’s reluctant-looking bride-to-be goes missing and a ransom note is left in her place, Patricia puts her sleuthing hat on to help the … sleuthing hat on to help the new deputy captain solve the crime.
With new friend, eccentric socialite Lady Mary Bostihill-Swank, gym-bunny Barbie, and her ever faithful butler by her side, Patricia intends to find out who has the missing woman and discover why so many rival gangs are trying to find her.
However, with no actual skills to call on and a niggling reminder that she was cleaning houses for a living just a few weeks ago, will she find the girl in time or just lead her friends into danger?
Expect the author’s usual blend of humour, mystery, and action as Patricia Fisher gets in too deep again.
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Patricia Fisher’s adventures on the high seas continues. And what a ride! There is murder, mix-ups, laughter, and slapstick confusion, but through it all, she can solve the mystery. It is great to see the primary character developed, and the author is also giving the side-kicks some fantastic personality. A page-turner, that I read in one sitting to find out what would happen. You’ve love this book.
Patricia is boarding in Miami after having a wonderful time looking around the city. She is taking to the Captain when 2 black lemo’s drive up at least 6 huge guys get out, all dresses in black with sunglasses on, then an older man an a young lady and her tiny dog get out. She puts the dog in her purse. Patricia assumes she is the older man’s daughter but when introduces himself to the Captain, she is his finance, Patricia head to her suite on the 20th floor. The largest one on the ship, after she discovered a huge jewel that had been missing for 30 years, so the Captain said the suite was hers for the 3 month around the world cruise and she got a large reward for finding the Sapphire, so now she could dress more like she belonged in the suite. Jermaine is still her butler and still gets mad at her when she does things that he considers his job. She has made a new friend Lady Mary who really loves her gin or cosmopolitans but mainly gin. Her husband is an author so he doesn’t mind her not being around all the time. At dinner that night Patricia is at the captain’s table, not something that happens every night. Also the older man (Eduardo and hid fiancé, Lady Mary and her husband George along with other. The men in black with sunglasses that are the bodyguards are close by. Eduardo does most of the talking and tells them they are on the way to Los Angeles to get married. During dinner they hear a hekicopter land on top of the sip. This seems to make Eduardo nervous. The Captain says that some guests who can’t make it on time to board at the port helicopter in. Not long after the helicopter leaves. After dinner Patricia heads to her cabin. By the next morning the second in command after the Captain comes to talk to Patricia to say the bride to be has been kidnapped and they have found one of the bodyguard shot in the head and sent down the laundry chute that does tablecloths, napkins and towels from the pool deck he got his job after Patricia discovered the previous one was involved in the jewelers theft Ana a murder. The Captain put him in charge of finding the kidnapped woman and he has already told Eduardo all about Patricia. There is non-stop action and plenty of humorous things that happen. Don’t want to say too much and give anything away, but it is a very fun read with wonderful characters and you don’t have to read the first book to understand this one, but you are missing more fun if you don’t. Steve Higgs does a wonderful job with the Cozy Genre and you are missing a good time by not reading them.
I received this book for free. I am voluntarily posting this review and all opinions expressed herein are my own.
This is the second book in the Patricia Fisher Mystery series. It is a standalone book with no cliffhanger ending. I have not read the first book in this series and had no trouble following the characters or the plot.
Absolutely entertaining, well written, and a lot of fun! There are times where you will laugh out loud at either the antics of the characters or a very smart humorous quip. The characters are well developed and interesting. Patricia is smart, funny and a strong woman. Her cohorts do not blend into the background – each one has a distinctive personality. I absolutely adored Lady Mary and her ever-changing rules for drinking cocktails. And the butler’s quirky past… The mystery is a good one with some really fun twists. Plus, there is a lot of action-packed scenes – so never a dull moment.
The narrator, Katherine Anderson, was pitch perfect. She did distinctive voices for all of the characters. She narrated at a good pace and landed the punchlines perfectly.
The Kidnapped Bride
A Patricia Fisher Mystery
Steve Higgs
Kindle, Jul 2019
172 pages
Contemporary Cozy Mystery
Purchased for Kindle app
The cover is that wonderful blue that always attracts my attention and some really great artwork of Down Under in the background and a sassy older blonde on board a ship in the foreground. You really can’t tell she’s older by the cover artwork, but you can tell she’s sassy!
Our cozy heroine, Patricia Fisher is a foot-loose former housewife with a taste for gin and a talent for solving crimes. And she’s fifty-two. Her cohorts on this trip are her faithful butler, Jermaine, gym instructor, Barbie, and new socialite friend, Lady Mary Bostihill. Keeping an eye on Patricia is none other than the captain, who’d like to get closer if things ever settle down.
Creating mayhem and danger is a Mob Boss who wants to be unknown along with his two hulking bodyguards and his unhappy bride-to-be. One Mob Boss will get you two, or more it seems, as this one has several more on his trail and they aren’t too hesitant to “eliminate” people they consider uncooperative, uncommunicative, or unnecessary. There’s a simple matter of a hole in the middle of the forehead that seems to work for them. But the bride-to-be is missing and Patricia seems to be the one everyone thinks can find her. Even the Mob Boss thinks she can find her. Patricia discovers all sorts of things along the way to drinks with the Captain in this crazy hilarious adventure on the high seas by Steve Higgs. Now I have to go back and read the first book so I can read the rest of this 10 (intended) book series. I highly recommend this book and probably this series and probably his Tempest Michaels and Amanda Harper series. This writer has a gift for writing terribly amusing cozy mysteries with unique primary characters. Check them out.
This review is for the audio book.
I enjoyed this easy to listen to cozy mystery. The story is just like the cover artwork depicts a light, clean easy mystery just right for filling in a few hours. There was a lot going on with a number of characters that it kept it entertaining. This is the first book by this author I have listened to but I will look out for more books by him again.
Patricia is on a cruise ship enjoying her time with her newly made friends when the peace is shattered by an unexpected helicopter landing. With the unplanned land comes lots of trouble in the form of gangster Bosses and there goons. And they are all seem to be after the same thing a passenger that has gone missing. The newly pointed Head of security is over whelmed and asks Patricia to step in and get to the bottom of the mess but whenever there is a tuff war between warring fractions of the mob guns are going to start blazing. Can Patricia keep herself and her friends a live long enough to see the end of the cruise.
The narrator was okay but being British I found the voice a little bit annoying as I don’t know anyone that speaks like that but I did get use to it.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
This is the second book in the Cruise Mysteries series. I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to the next one. I like that Patricia is gaining confidence in herself and that others see it too. She is thrust into a new mystery, a kidnapped fiance, and pulls her quirky friends with her. There is a lot of humor as they get into crazy situations and are ultimately successful in their mission.
I received an advance copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving my review.
situational-humor, verbal-humor, gangsters, friendship, suspense
Mrs Fisher has some really nice friends that she acquired since coming aboard the cruise ship and angrily scheduling an around the world cruise after catching her long term husband cheating with her best friend. When she reboards in Florida, she encounters a rather nasty man and his trophy fiancee. But when the girl disappears, the insanity begins to build as several different groups of gangsters converge on Mrs Fisher demanding that she find what they want. Like all of Higgs’ books, this is hilarious! The language is unremarkable and the violence is not graphic, but the plots and plans are right out of Hollywood.
Once again, Patricia Fisher drew me in to a delightful, entertaining story. An on the run gangster and his reluctant bride-to-be join the passengers on the Aurelia, leading to the gangsters he’s running from to infiltrate the cruise liner. Cari Gonzalez, the bride-to-be, is kidnapped, causing hilarious trouble as each group of mobsters try to find her, and think Patricia knows where Cari is. Patrica leads the gangsters on a merry chase while trying to come up with a plan to find out who kidnapped Cari and why.
We meet Lady Mary, a feisty older woman with a taste for gin, lots of gin, who is seldom far from Patricia’s side. Lady Mary is truly entertained by Patricia’s antics, ‘I’ve know I’ve said it before, Patricia sweetie, but it is never dull around you.’, and provides a wonderful comedic addition to the characters. Barbie and Jermaine, of course, make their appearance, and without a thought offer their help selflessly, with Barbie’s looks as a distraction and Jermaine’s protection. There was little development in their characters, which was disappointing, so they fell a bit flat.
Patricia’s maturation took an odd turn away from the humble, self-conscious woman in the last book. In this book, while still maintaining her lack of detective ability and training, several times she shows an overinflated pride at solving the last mystery on the ship. To herself she admits to wanting and liking the admiration she gets. As what tends to happen with pride, Patricia makes a huge mistake,
***”I was mortified. Who did I think I was? I had let myself be convinced I was some kind of super sleuth that could crack the kidnapping, find the girl and save the day. The result of my interreference was my friends being shot at, Barbie getting felt up and now I had caused a nice couple to be terrified and traumatised. The cherry on the top was how I had caused embarrassment to the captain, a man that had shown me nothing but respect and kindness.”***
With the addition of this personal flaw, Patricia becomes even more relatable. We all get blinded by pride at some point, so why shouldn’t she? She continued her fitness training, feeling stronger and more confident for doing so. Through her journey to become a new version of herself, she reminds us all that we should love ourselves and only change because we want to, for our own reasons.
Powerful themes teaching us to look more closely at ourselves once again wind through the story. Again I look forward to what trouble Patricia finds in the next book.
Best one yet for Patricia’s adventures. I loved this one, wondering how she’d get out of the scrapes she found herself and her friends in this time. Steve Higgs is a gifted writer, executing humor, adventure, and suspense all at the same time. I’m so glad I ran into Steve’s books and always anxiously await the next one. I’ve read every series and every book and still have the need for more. Please keep them coming, Steve!
Patricia has befriended the bibulous Lady Mary Bostilhill-Swan, who’s bewildered by Patricia’s newfound love of fitness. Lady Mary is always more interested in the liquor than the activity, which is why she takes no interest in the rushed arrival of a group of shady-looking gangsters as she and Patricia return from a golfing-and-gin excursion in Miami. Our heroine, however, is intrigued by the gang, especially when swarthy bodyguards drag a young and attractive woman on board.
At dinner, Patricia learns that Cara Gonzalez, the young woman she’d assumed was Eduardo Perez’s daughter, is actually his fiancé. A clearly reluctant one, as she barely eats or interacts with anyone at the table, and drinks very little at a table swimming with wine and liquor. She leaves the table after spitting a curt phrase at her betrothed and tries to speak to Patricia in the restroom … but the language barrier … so Cara smiles, touches Patricia’s arm, and vanishes into the hallway with her two bodyguards … literally.
Hailed as a brilliant detective because of her first adventure, Perez asks Patricia to find Cara, offering $50,000 and a hefty dose of intimidation, but he’s never encountered a feisty British woman who views threats dimly. She accepts the assignment, but after shucking Perez’s minders, she meets his numerous gangster rivals on board, all with a single objective: to get their hands on Cara, who reportedly holds the key to a dead man’s fortune.
As Patricia continues to search for the missing fiancée, Lady Mary and Barbie are also kidnapped, amping up the pressure to resolve the situation. With the two most important women in his life endangered, Jermaine channels his inner John Steed as he elegantly reduces the bad guys to rubble and guides Madam across the finish line.
Once more, Steven Higgs has produced another splendid Patricia Fisher adventure. With her devoted butler Jermaine and fitness instructor Barbie by her side, there’s nothing she can’t do.