Murder and Mayhem on a Megaship . . . Poppy Legend, forty years old and feeling just a touch behind in life, is sailing back to the last place she wants to go . . . home. Sure, she snagged a fantastic concierge gig on the inaugural voyage of a billionaire’s cruise line, which promises to revitalize her island home, Celebration Cay—the place she ran away from years ago.Not that she has time to … ago.
Not that she has time to worry about what’s waiting in the future. A spoiled billionaire, rich and demanding cruise guests, and two of the world’s top boxers plus their eccentric entourages are doing everything they can to dominate every single second of Poppy’s present.
That is, until a killer delivers a fatal sucker punch that threatens to sink the cruise line on its maiden journey.
With the livelihood of Poppy’s hometown (and her own business) about to be left dead in the water—the personal concierge dives in to hunt down a murderer.
Will an amateur sleuth be able flush out a homicidal loose cannon, or will a devil cast Poppy into the deep blue sea?
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A bit ironic for the times to see so many new cozy mysteries based on cruise life but a great way to fantasize what it could be like again. Introductory to a new series where Poppy finds herself in her new position as a cruise concierge for their maiden voyage only to find it mingled into her past. When she discovers the body of a fight promoter, she finds herself a suspect in his murder crossing paths with her ex who happens to be the local investigator of the case when the ship docks in her hometown.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Poppy Legend, working as a Travel Concierge on a cruise ship, had left town 15 years earlier after her breakup with her high school sweetheart Jason Klein, and she now finds herself heading back to her hometown of Celebration Cay (originally named “Serenity Key”) with mixed emotions. She had been instrumental in arranging a business deal with her billionaire boss, Everdale Voss, to make the Key his home base for launching his new cruise line which would bring in money to keep the town profitable.
Awakened on maiden voyage of the cruise ship “Journee” with a page from the security officer to urgently report to the Atrium, Poppy had all sorts of scenarios flashing through her mind. When she got there through the dense crowd, she saw two boxers glaring at each other and remembered her boss’ warning to keep them in line. She had scheduled their gym time to never overlap. With their rematch coming up, this was starting to look like a publicity stunt when “Ghost” Lee’s manager, JJ, was smiling and recording everything on his cell phone. Then JJ insulted “Painkiller” Tanner, his client’s opponent, who responded, “You’re a washed-up, has-been crook, and you’ll get what’s coming to you soon enough.” JJ laughed heartily, amazing Poppy that he still held his cell phone so steady while laughing that hard. Things got tense and Poppy began her calming talent as the two men finally walked away.
Walking back to her room after a huge breakfast and treatment at Medical for a bad sunburn when she fell asleep in a deck chair, Poppy saw JJ Hutchins coming out of a room, apparently arguing with the occupant.
Poppy went to talk to JJ on behalf of Painkiller’s wife’s request about deleting a video he had made, but she finds the fight promoter has been murdered. With the livelihood of Poppy’s hometown, as well as her own business, threatened, Poppy jumps in to the investigation to hunt down the murderer. Will she find the culprit? Will it put her in danger too?
Although it felt like the book moved along rather slowly, it did let the reader get a good exposure to the characters and relationships on board the ship. Grab your copy and see how Poppy handles investigating the murder, especially when she gets in the path of a familiar law enforcement officer . . .
Poppy is heading home after being away in Europe for years. She left after she broke up with her fiancé. She is on the maiden voyage of a new cruise line Journee. She is an independent travel concierge, she helped bring this cruise line to her home town. Everything is going well on the trip, everyone is happy with her skills on the trip. She is asked by on of her clients to speak to another about something he did. She doesn’t really want to as she really likes to stay away from him.
Poppy heads to the guy’s room, trying to find him. She knocks and no one answers. She is about to leave when a steward comes with a drop off. She goes into his room. She doesn’t see him, she looks in the bathroom. She sees the man there and he is dead. This the last thing she and the ship needed.
Turns out that someone killed him, everyone expects Poppy to solve the crime or else. She decides she will help. Now that they are docked, she runs into the man that she ran from. She has not come to terms with what happened in the past. She gets to see her family. Her sister decides to help her try to solve this murder before everything comes crashing down.
Poppy learns a lot about this guy, there are so many people that would want to kill him. She slowly will put the pieces together. The killer doesn’t like how close she is getting. Poppy has to solve this before the killer succeeds in takin her life as well
This book was really good, you really don’t know who did the crime until the end. You will Poppy trying to reunite with her family, trying to deal with her ex. and everything else. I can’t wait to see where Poppy and everyone else is up to in the next book.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
When pieces of your old and new life meet, it can be ugly
Poppy left town after discovering that her boyfriend had a new fiancée- the overlapping part would have been a last straw for me too.
Why would you want to stay to watch him marry and have what he planned with you for years with someone else? Small town and island living are not that different in that there are only so many places and ways to avoid someone. If they had broken up first? Suck it up buttercup!
Fifteen years later, Poppy is back in town after negotiating a deal that would keep her hometown from going under, but would mean it would have to change, and keep up with a new kind of luxury tourist industry
Trouble with a scammer and some headlining talent for the cruise line and investors Poppy brought in could sink everything for her clients and her hometown
Action and sister packed mystery and adventure
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The author has introduced us to many characters that I am assuming will continue to be coming back in future books in the series. The story pulls you into the mystery and never lets go.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Murder on the high seas. Poppy is back in her home town after fifteen of living in Europe. She is running a tour company for the new tourist shipping line in town. But on the maiden voyage a fight promoter is murdered, and Poppy and her sister are on the case. And stepping on the toes of the lead detective. The same detective who was her childhood sweetheart and threw her over for another woman years ago. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review