Friday, August 23, 2024

Review: Ghost Cruise by Melissa Bowersock

Note: Although it has been a long, long time since we did this last, we sometimes have what we call a doubleshot review. This is two reviews done by two different reviewers to provide different takes on the same book. Sometimes they'll be in agreement, sometimes they won't be. They'll often focus on different things, giving our followers a few viewpoints about the book. Today is the first half of our doubleshot review from Judi Moore. Then in two days, on Sunday morning, you'll get BigAl's take on the same book.


Genre: Cozy Mystery/Paranormal

Description:

Native American medium, Sam Firecloud, is persuaded by his partner, Lacey Fitzpatrick, to take her parents, her brother and his wife, on a six-day cruise around the Californian Channel Islands to celebrate Lacey’s parents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary. Sam’s special talent becomes extremely useful during the trip.

Author:

Melissa Bowersock is an eclectic, and prolific, award-winning author who writes in a variety of fiction and non-fiction genres: paranormal, biography, western, action, romance, fantasy, spiritual, and satire. She has been both traditionally and independently published. One of her several ongoing series is this “Lacey Fitzpatrick and Sam Firecloud Mystery Series”. She writes romance under the pen name Amber Flame.

She has a tattoo on the inside of her left wrist that says IMAGINE. In her next life, she plans to be an astronaut.

Appraisal:

Thinking up the idea of the cruise, booking it, and the cruise itself are all described in detail. The cruise sounded lush. One felt it might be a trip the author herself had recently enjoyed. I would too!

About a third of the way in, Sam senses something ghostly, and the Fitzpatrick-Firecloud team go into action.

Although what there is in the way of ‘action’ is satisfying, it is a very slight idea, and one feels that a lot of padding has been packed around it. The padding is interesting, and beautifully written, but there is much more travelogue to this short book than ghost hunting.

For me, a big part of the enjoyment of this series is the Native American element. That was almost entirely missing in this novella.

Add to this that Bowersock’s extensive back catalogue is listed at the front of the book and given again, with a paragraph about each book, at the back.

An engaging, but very slight, addition to Bowersock’s oeuvre.

One for completists.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: *** Three Stars

Reviewed by: Judi Moore

Approximate word count: 30-35,000 words

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