How many books are published each day?

 How many of you have a book under the tree for someone? A cruiser maybe? Did you know that each day over 2,700 new books are published according to Bowker? We list many of the cruise story writers on the menu drop down from cruise books and can add your favourite cruise author if missing. https://www.dorisvisits.com/cruise-novels-a-variety-of-good-cruise-reads/

Did you know, in the same way, you use Spotify or Apple music, the Kindle library collects subscriptions and pays the composer as you listen or the writer as you pay per page you read.... So, the book sales of my cruise crime mysteries, pay towards the upkeep of this site and the website and chat sites, the servers, the widgets and subscriptions and clouds. It is not too late to grab a book and put it under the tree, as a pressie for us and the cruiser you know who reads. If nothing else, please take a look, as the clicks all help. https://amzn.to/3yRwWRy One of the top cruise authors, of cruise mysteries read by cruisers, is Morgan Mayer. So, I wondered how I compared. Marys book Cruise Ship Lost Daughter is Best Sellers Rank: 5,014,151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) 20,399 in Crime & Mystery Graphic Novels 55,060 in Women Sleuths (Books) 109,910 in Humorous Fiction (Books) Customer reviews: 4.3 out of 5 stars 54 ratings My Cruise Ship Heist, the first in the series Best Sellers Rank: 387,169 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store) 3,304 in Private Investigator Mysteries (Kindle Store) 8,375 in Cozy Mystery 66,744 in Mysteries (Books) As a hi five to me this Christmas, please just click helpful on a positive review of HEIST. If you are in the library, download it and see what keeps Doris Visits chats groups going. Thanks, Happy Holidays. https://amzn.to/3yRwWRy

Looking back at 2021; I cheated death, had major brain surgery, didn't cruise. I end with a simple message.

Major brain surgery got in the way of me achieving my goal this year, but I escaped the grim reaper.

So, how did my head get covered in glue and end up on fire? That's not as important as how incredible the NHS were. Broadcast news would have you believe that every non-COVID patient is sidelined. 

My tale can hardly be more different!

My big blog is here.  https://www.dorisvisits.com/my2021/

Happy holidays. I intend to have a better year next year.

Stuart St Paul

COZY CRUISE MYSTERY - Good cruise reads, good Christmas tree presents

 Our Christmas special to our cruisers - all 6 novels in a Kindle Box set for the price of two. That's a deal we fought to get.

Cozy mystery thrillers with private detectives have always scored well as novels and as TV shows. From Columbo, through the gentle Midsomer Murders to the increased octane shows like Law and Order. To find a show on your doorstep is always exciting, especially if without the inconvenience of trucks parked in your street and film crews in your house for years and years as a show hits season after season.

Cruise mysteries are based around crimes that need to be solved, but as crime is rare on any ship then it has to be special. These are big crimes, not just the go-to murder, but drug smuggling, people smuggling, and criminals themselves trying to move country undetected, which, is how it all starts. All 6 books in one box set deal.

CRUISE SHIP HEIST

Commander Kieron Philips first civilian job is to commentate on the Panama Canal transit and be in uniform at a commemoration service on a cruise ship his sponsored refugee has grown to become a dancer on. Now a civilian, Kieron's quasi-adopted daughter wants him to find romance but his highly tuned instincts sense serious trouble. Money appears and people go missing as the ship sails between South American ports. With no protective kit, no backup and not armed he avoids ruthless gang appointed assassins on the ship, looking for money he should not have to guard.  Worse still, after a career serving his country with no family to make him vulnerable, he has skin in the game; Auli'i, who now calls him dad. Nothing is worth putting her at risk but as the deathly game escalates, he figures his presence is more than a coincidence. But how? She arranged his visit.

Ports in which action takes place in the novel - Panama.

START AN AUDIO BOOK SUBSCRIPTION - OR GIVE ONE AS A PRESENT WITH THIS COZY CRUISE MYSTERY WHERE THE ROMANCE IS ALWAYS DOOMED

CRUISE SHIP SERIA KILLER

Hunter and Witowski have just started their Miami based cruise crime investigation unit when the three guests are killed on a cruise ship that is out of helicopter assistance range. The Panama to Tahiti crossing is all ocean. Eleven lonely, isolated days of romance at sea that can bleed no more. They board a long-range coast guard plane for a night jump into the Pacific as near to the ship as is possible. Another body is found before they change clothes, and another murder happens each night. The ship's security officer Ruby Jenkins soon develops ideas a taste to join what she sees as a more exciting future, but it is Prisha from data wrangling in the ship’s office who is seconded to help CSCI. If they can stay alive long enough to find the killer. 

CRUISE SHIP LAUNDRY WARS

When asked to investigate a simple problem at sea, Hunter avoids too much information. He has a newborn baby at home and knows cruise operators never call CSCI for simple. Still recovering from an almost fatal head injury, his partner Kieron must leave the beach-front Caribbean villa he bought with Georgie. They had a strange fling, thrown together by discovered millions they had to spend then and there, as Keiron solved the heist that launched CSCI. Her partner, ex KGB agent Bedrîska is living there with Georgie but leaves with Kieron to be his undercover wife as he goes from one awkward triangle to the one three ships repeat in the Mediterranean. Bedi and Kieron discover the ships are picking up women in the Adriatic and selling them against their will on the Spanish coast, in trade the mafia has no intention of losing. Has Bedriska got Kieron's back or is he what she needs to settle?

CRUISE SHIP ART THEFT

Art is being systematically stolen from the collection on the most luxurious cruise ship at sea. The collective value is way beyond the sum people kill for. CSCI is approached to work invisibly because unlike INTERPOL or any other international crime unit, art police, valuers, insurance investigators, or experts, they are unknown to the thieves. They must remain unseen or the crime will stop, the thieves will vanish and the art lost for good. The ace CSCI play is their intern Macey who can be on the ship as the star guest. It is an opportunity that can make this young unknown artist a star. It is exploitation that puts her at risk, but it is a chance her talent deserves; a chance a girl from the Miami projects never gets to have. All she has to do is survive and make it work.

DISASTROUS (COVID 19) CRUISE ROMANCE

Romance can be harsh, it can be violent, it can be a crime. Violet has never had the chance of romance, nor has she experienced life and time is running out. As the world comes out of a major virus lockdown the media's resurgence for life sells her the need to venture out before it is too late. Her care-at-home medical team disagree but before she can be interned again for her own safety, she takes a cruise and vanishes without a trace. Now she is not only a danger to herself, but to others.
Possessing refined skills cunning, wit and acting that were essential to survive a lifetime of institutionalisation, she uses her charm on the ship's crew and guests.
Georgie, head of entertainment senses the problem early on after an unfortunate incident where she overstepped. Rather than admit the incident to her superior officer, the hotel manager, she shares her worry with her partner, Bedriska. The Russian is still in lockdown in Miami where she works for CSCI, from where she tells Georgie to involve Kieron who is on her ship as the guest speaker. He is taking a long look at life and more rehabilitation time as his head injury continues to prove a problem, but the relationship between him and Georgie is frosty as that triangle becomes evermore complicated.
CSCI honours her wishes and doesn't involve the ex-special services man who has been single all his life. They start to investigate Violet from Miami and find the woman is dangerous. Very dangerous. By the time Kieron finds out, it is too late, he and Violet are friends.

START AN AUDIO BOOK SUBSCRIPTION - OR GIVE ONE AS A PRESENT WITH THIS COZY CRUISE MYSTERY WHERE THE ROMANCE IS ALWAYS DOOMED
 

(Cruise ship) BLOOD DIAMONDS

A storeroom gem safe on the cruise ship MS Aerwyna is open and a whistleblower reports it on a tip line. It is the third out-off-service ship, anchored in international waters off the Bahamas, to be refitted. If the heist involves each of the anchored three ships, it is well-organised crime with a purse large enough to kill for.

By the afternoon, Cruise Ship Crime Investigators CSCI are onboard under a cover of system testers. The mastermind and digital expert required to break into the cruise operator’s main system, produce movement orders, and open doors, maybe remotely working from anywhere. However, at least one from the gang must be on board the ship to open the mechanical lock and physically carry the bounty away. Whilst false COVID test results are used to immediately lock the ship down, CSCI know time is limited before the trapped bandits realise the crime has been discovered and they need to escape.

Our page on cruise insurance & antigen testing: click> INSURANCE & TESTING

CHAT GROUPS - a fantastic way to help others and a place to find answers. We run a Facebook Group for each of the ships. For example, P&O IONA group  P&O Ventura MARELLA EXPLORER Disney & Family cruise chatSAGA Ocean & River cruise chat group Viking Ocean & River Cruising chatCunard Chat - Premium cruise liners Find the complete list of chat groups here

Dubai Aquarium - swimming with the fishes

Not everyone who shops will want to look at fish. But they will. The tank is at the centre of the mall. If the glass broke they might all be swimming with them. The children love it and when shopping it is hard to walk past it. Inside the Dubai Mall is the biggest aquarium I have ever seen, it stretches up from the lower floor to the 2nd floor and you can dive in it or take glass vehicle visits to see the sharks. But, you can see a lot from the shops through the 60cm thick glass into the 10 million litre tank that has over 33,000 fishes and underwater creatures; 140 species with over 400 Sharks and Rays, including Sand Tiger Sharks, Giant Groupers, and a host of other marine species.

If when you have watched it you want to go in, it might be too late as there is a queue to dive in the water and booking in advance is advised. It sold 61,000 tickets in its first five days and some of the activities like diving with sharks need to be booked in advance. There are many packages for this once in a lifetime treat watched by other shoppers.

• Researcher package includes:
• New meet and greet area
• Entry to aquarium tunnel
• Underwater Zoo
• Behind the scenes tour
• Underwater Observatory
• Explorer package includes:
• New meet and greet area
• Entry to aquarium tunnel
• Underwater Zoo
• Glass bottom boat ride
• Submersible simulator
• Researcher and Explorer package:
• New meet and greet area
• Entry to aquarium tunnel
• Underwater Zoo
• Glass bottom boat ride
• Submersible simulator
• Behind the scenes tour

SEE THE CRUISE BEFORE YOU CRUISE THE SEA.

If you want to see the Doris Visits films of Dubai we have many. Shopping in Dubai, Souks near the cruise terminal, Marina and Beach, Burj Khalifa and Eating Posh, Dubai Madinat. If you are new to Doris Visits Cruise TV then welcome, please sign up to our Facebook Page and share with fellow cruisers. We are at sea every month of the year somewhere and post new films of cruise destinations each week.  Facebook.

SEE THE CRUISE BEFORE YOU CRUISE THE SEA.

 

SHIP TOURS help you choose your next ship Aurora Ship Tour Marella Discovery 2 Azura Ship Tour Cunard Queen Victoria Britannia Ship Tour Virgin Scarlet Lady Arcadia Ship Tour Ventura Ship Tour SUITE on P&O Every cruise ship and every fleet listed here

PORT GUIDES filmed by Doris Visits are a great way to research, remember your cruise and share your memories with your friends.   ATHENS GUIDE ANTIGUA CRETE GUIDE RHODES ST PETERSBURG ROME DUBROVNIK KEY WEST STATUE OF LIBERTY TOUR STAVANGER

Our Insurance and Medical testing page has other options and is worth a look

You may have seen cruise thriller author & movie maker Stuart St Paul - click here on a ship giving an after-dinner speech or a talk with a book signing. Crime novels are a whole new experience. You may not have been to the ports in the novels, you certainly won't have been to the parts of the ship they use but they take you there. Stuart's page is here. The cheapest way to buy his cruise thrillers is the KINDLE BOX SET, all six cruise thrillers for the price of two.

CHAT GROUPS - is a fantastic way to help others and a place to find answers. We run a Facebook Group for each of the ships. For example, P&O IONA group  P&O Ventura MARELLA EXPLORER Disney & Family cruise chatSAGA Ocean & River cruise chat group Viking Ocean & River Cruising chatCunard Chat - Premium cruise liners Find the complete list of chat groups here

Rhodes Guide

Our first visit to Rhodes and what a pleasant surprise, it is an excellent cruise shop. You can walk to the town, walk around it hassle-free, and it is not expensive. An example of how easy they make this visit, the tourist's authority normally deliver maps to the ship to be taken at the reception. Fridge magnet one Euro compared with ten dollars in Bora Bora ... so bonus. It is a find. Great food, great art, nice people, fantastic wine. We stopped there with P&O, and we were followed around by the Norwegian Spirit. We have guides of Athens, Malta, Crete and other Med cities.

DORIS VISITS EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN MENU OF PORT GUIDES   DORIS VISITS WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN MENU OF PORT GUIDES

ATHENS METRO ATHENS ICE CREAM ATHENS GUIDE ATHENS HORSE+CARRIAGE ATHENS PLAKA

Well, we did end the day with an incredible bottle of rose wine with some grilled sardines and a Greek salad just away from the oldest square in the town, in a restaurant where we were not hassled to go inside. The town is an old walled city, whilst there is a new part with designer shops that we looked at quickly at the end, it is, without doubt, the charm of the old town that wins.

The cotton and art are not expensive and we were not over hassled. It was hot and whilst you feel protected suncream and a stop for liquid is recommended. The ship is very close and you can enter at any gate. The maps handed out are very clear. There is no need to prep this site or spend a lot of money, the film may help.

There are options to visit, inside the buildings with or without guides.

In brief, Rhodes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a well-preserved city with about 10,000 residents. The streets inside the wall are flat, the roads up to the back of the city have a gradient which is a nice climb. Sensible shoes. Castles, narrow streets, mosques, fountains, squares, vines draping, wine, fresh fish, and more. The old city wall is thick, it has been a strategic island for the Knights Templars and many others for centuries. Mussolini wanted to use the old Palace of the Grand Masters as his holiday home. It was originally a Byzantine fortress in the 7th century, then the administrative centre of the Knights after they conquered the island. To find it, walk up the cobblestone alley, the Avenue of the Knights. You will see the Knights of St John's palace on the right at the top. There are explanatory boards to read.

The knights had a hospital to deal with the wounded and then the plague that developed because of mounting dead bodies.

Take a look at the maps and help hereHere you will find this map of the old town

SHOPS  - The shop where we saw jewellery being made belonged to Nikoz. It can be found at the back of the town if you are walking around. These streets are quiet and the shops less commercial. His brother's boat is here if you want to book something small and local before you arrive.

SHIP TOURS help you choose your next ship Aurora Ship Tour Marella Discovery 2 Azura Ship Tour Cunard Queen Victoria Britannia Ship Tour Virgin Scarlet Lady Arcadia Ship Tour Ventura Ship Tour SUITE on P&O Every cruise ship and every fleet listed here

PORT GUIDES filmed by Doris Visits are a great way to research, remember your cruise and share your memories with your friends.   ATHENS GUIDE ANTIGUA CRETE GUIDE RHODES ST PETERSBURG ROME DUBROVNIK KEY WEST STATUE OF LIBERTY TOUR STAVANGER

You may have seen cruise thriller author & movie maker Stuart St Paul - click here on a ship giving an after-dinner speech or a talk with a book signing. Crime novels are a whole new experience. You may not have been to the ports in the novels, you certainly won't have been to the parts of the ship they use but they take you there. Stuart's page is here. The cheapest way to buy his cruise thrillers is the KINDLE BOX SET, all six cruise thrillers for the price of two.

CHAT GROUPS - is a fantastic way to help others and a place to find answers. We run a Facebook Group for each of the ships. For example, P&O IONA group  P&O Ventura MARELLA EXPLORER Disney & Family cruise chatSAGA Ocean & River cruise chat group Viking Ocean & River Cruising chatCunard Chat - Premium cruise liners Find the complete list of chat groups here

Voodoo in New Orleans - one scary trick or treet

I challenge you to walk into a voodoo shop, handle the items and feel nothing. African religions can be mistaken for voodoo, just as the museums and shops can be mistaken for being a little commercial. But they are fun and buying a spell might just be something you do in-the-moment. The American diaspora religions were developed mainly in southern America and New Orleans has much history there. The African religions are said to have influenced many other religions including Christianity. You will hear a lot about Marie Catherine Laveau who was born on September 10, 1801. She was a hairdresser who added healing and being a herbalist to her talents as well as said to have supplied poison to prisoners wishing to escape the gallows. Some of the stories will have been embellished, but she is said to have walked the streets like she was the Witch Queen of New Orleans, and is said to be seen walking in the procession every year at Mardis Gras. She married her first husband Jacques Paris (or Santiago) in 1819. He died or disappeared so she could marry a prominent rich white man and she died Marie Catherine Laveau Paris Glapion died on June 15, 1881, aged 79. She is buried in the Glapion family tomb. The cemetery can only be visited by family members of those there, or with a guide. Her daughter, also Marie, was as well known as a priestess which does have the effect of the two being mistaken for each other. The daughter is at rest in a church but some of the museum pictures you will see are the daughter.Doris Visits producer Stuart St Paul wrote about the voodoo high priestess Marie Laveux, and how she got inside the head of Macey a character in his series of cruise thrillers CSCI Cruise Ship Crime Investigators. Macey is helping investigate art thefts from luxury ships and paints the priestess in the graveyard. It is an interesting passage in Cruise Ship Art Theft that really shows the place and excuses some inspirational art by the youngster who is the star guest on the ship. Click the picture for details of the book. On the series page in Amazon, there is the opportunity to buy all six thrillers for the price of two in their boxed Kindle deal. Previously a stuntman then director in major A-List movies, Stuart has many stories to tell on stage. Like the one he told in New York when taken there on the Aurora to explain the tale.

CONTENT

The Port guides here on Doris Visits are a great way to remember your cruise and share with your friends. But you might want to chat.

Continue your cruise anywhere - on the train, on the plane. Load your kindle now, because you can now get all six cruise thrillers for the price of two in the Kindle Box Set. Cruise thrillers are a whole new experience. You may not have been to the ports used in the novels, you certainly won't have been to the parts of the ship they employ. All the cruise crime novels will make you feel like you are in the adventure and on the ship - dodge the bullets and stay out of the romance (same thing!). Ship and cruise accurate, the novels are a great way for new cruisers to discover a ship too. Please share the Amazon link with other cruisers.

CRUISE NOVELS

We have a chat site of books about ports and cities ships visit, where guests can share and talk with authors. CRUISE READING CHAT GROUP You may have seen the author on a ship giving an after-dinner talk or perhaps in the theatre during the day. His page is here. Stuart St Paul - click here  

 

Essentials - cruise travel labels and our cruise crime novels - oh, and the seasickness bands.

CHAT GROUPS - FAMILY CRUISING

P&O Iona chat  P&O Arvia

P&O Britannia

P&O Azura - Family Grand Class ship max 3600  P&O Ventura - Grand Class ship

 

 

MARELLA EXPLORER   Marella Explorer 2

Marella Discovery   Marella Discovery 2

 

Disney & Family cruise chat

 

CHAT GROUPS - ADULT ONLY

SAGA Ocean cruise chat group - over 40's if travelling with someone over 50. Both ships SPIRIT of DISCOVER, SPIRIT of ADVENTURE

LUXURY ADULT Cruising Chat - this group is for guests who experience many different ships (RSSC, Seabourn, Celebrity, Silverseas, Sovereign, Hapag Lloyd and many others )

 

Cunard Chat - Premium cruise liners

 

Viking Ocean Cruising chat - all Viking ocean ships here

 

Ambassador Chat - Britain's newest cruise line

 

Fred Olseon Criose Chat - Bolette, Borealis, Balmoral, Braemar

Virgin Voyages chat - Modern styled ships, fitness and game areas with limited smoking areas

 

Azamara chat - Radiance Class ships - Journey, Pursuit, Quest (previously the P&O Adonia) 700 guests

P&O Arcadia  P&O Aurora

Mobility challenges when cruising

 

CRUISE READING CHAT GROUP

 

CARIBBEAN PORT GUIDES

ANTIGUA ARUBA BAHAMAS BARBADOS BERMUDA BONAIRE CANAVERAL COSTA RICA COLUMBIA CURACAO CUBA DOMINICAN REP - AMBER COVE GRENADA GUADELOUPE JAMAICA KEY WEST MARTINIQUE MEXICO NEW ORLEANS PANAMA St THOMAS St KITTS St LUCIA Sint MAARTEN St VINCENT (& Bequia) TORTOLA TRINIDAD & TABAGO

 

Not all cruises are the same - the Canaries v the Baltic

 Because Spain has been more welcoming to UK families, the Canaries have become a go-to cruise destination. It is a long-used and liked holiday retreat for the British. Warm though sometimes windy, the sand is white and beautiful in most places, though a little black and volcanic in Lanzarote. In general, the islands are the same kind of cruise as the Caribbean in that you can treat the holiday as a floating hotel and do the beach. There is certainly nothing like the history of the Baltic, or the drama of the Fjords. 

Jean's videos of Madeira show the town, the gardens and the sledge ride. They form part of the playlist of Canary Island guides. They are all useful because she shows the buses in Tenerife taking you to the old town or across to the main beach, and Gran Canaria with the route down to the beach. 

This year we should be taking that tour and adding in Casablanca as well as another island or two. This is a relaxing cruise, sea sun and sand. A Baltic cruise can be said to be hard work, and we have at times been exhausted even though we love it just as much. It is a very different cruise because the beach doesn't really feature, although it can do. These ports are often following the old Hanseatic trade route and the towns are full of history. Palaces are grand, the guards often change and there are museums from Abba to the Vasa and St Petersburg art, religious buildings and re-constructed palaces. On this cruise as well as a coat or cover incase it does rain, though it can be very sunny, shoes and made for walking. Looking at Jean's videos you can see it is easy to more than your 10,000 steps a day at each stop.

Take a look at all the playlists we produce to help research before your cruise. This is our playlist of Baltic Cruise aids.

One note worth taking on board because this option sells out fast, is to do BOTH palaces in the same day. If you take a day for a palace, the tour inside is under an hour, the rest is taken up with looking at the outside and then strolling the gardens. Two palaces in a day is efficient. If you cannot climb stairs, check the help that might be offered. If it is only to watch a video tour in a room downstairs while others climb up the stairs and see the rooms, you will have seen it all here first. 

Book or Kindle file? A box set of multiple eBooks cheaper than a single paper book.

Many people still like the feel of a book, but it uses trees, creates waste, is costly at all points of manufacture, distribution and disposal as well as pays the author next to nothing if anything at all. In fact, it is harder and harder to defend against the fact that any smartphone can download a Kindle app and then play the audiobook as you read. 

Search for the Kindle app and just play with it, because once you have any form of device that will use the app you can send anything to yourself from your NHS proof pages to work you need to catch up on.  That is as well as more books than you could fit into your travel case. 

So, that is all history. The past we know about, we know you can listen or read and both keep up so they know where you are, but these books can appear in front of you relaxed in your living room reading off your giant 80-inch screen. One day houses won't have windows, they will all be screens, and you will be able to wake up as say, put my house in the Rockies... Your vision and experiences will be so much greater, just as now our base knowledge is capable of being so much greater.

The folding phone now seems to have come of age. It has been around for a while but struggled. Now screens can bend, and fold cloth-like. They can be wallpaper. They will be anything. The new Samsung is amazing. Link here.

https://amzn.to/314aebW

It has a standard size, phone screen front, but then opens up and doubles in size to become a tablet. You may say it is heavier than you are used to, but you have forgotten how heavy last years phone was and this will get lighter. But a tablet and a phone together. Then, books sold in box-sets so you can pick up 6 for the price of two, and they were already at the ridiculous Kindle price a paper book could not compete with. 

If you haven't already got a Kindle or Reader app on your device then do download one and play.  The box set of the six crime books has been created and it means you can get all 6 books bundled together for the price of two which is less than half price. You can find the books and the box set at .. https://amzn.to/3mg21JJ

How to cruise without getting on a ship.

There are a number of TV shows from the biggest cruise ship built, to the most expensive cruise ship ever built, to watching the daily events as lost bags are found and staff deal with customer demands. However, none of them is a holiday adventure. None of them mimics going away and being surprised.

The feel of being there, of seeing the ship and seeing the story unfold before you both happen in a cruise novel, and in the series of Cruise Ship Crime Detectives there are now six. The first, Cruise Ship Heist, sees a special forces war veteran go to a ship to commentate on the Panama Canal crossing, and be at the memorial service. He does not expect to be involved in a major crime with sums of money and people none of us expects to find on any cruise ship. The fast action story throws together a number of characters who in the second book, Cruise Ship Serial KIller, start a detective agency and find themselves being dropped way out into the Pacific to board a ship. The third book in the series is a simple problem; one of human trafficking and slave labour. A series of ships are used for the trade and the detectives solve the crime. Cruise Ship Art theft comes in as the fourth book when the younger members of the CSCI group that has expanded to include others, find themselves being used. Used is a word that many have to interpret, and many answers are available. The pandemic hits and cruising stops, and the fifth book is less of a direct action-adventure as a woman who is mentally ill sees that the world understands her lockdown. No one understands her taking a cruise and trying to come out of that state. It is a complex book of crime and mental illness.

Now released is the sixth book in the series. Blood Diamonds, the latest cruise thriller is definitely a page-turning action thriller. Like all of the books it can be read as a stand-alone novel, but the character's development is best appreciated when the books are read in order. However, if you want just one great cruise adventure, then it is Blood Diamonds. It is available now in the Amazon Books section as a hardback large print, paperback, or Kindle. The Audiobook is going through the system.

The longest chapter in Blood Diamonds is the first one, read here by the writer, Stuart St Paul. It sets up the story of the call the agency gets from the cruise operator because there is a problem on one of their ships. Like most cruise operators they have more than one ship, and like some their ships are identical. There is also a theme, and in this case, it is nymphs and mermaids; the ship is called MS Aerwyna. The name means friend of the sea and is pronounced Aer-wy-na. She is the daughter of the Greek goddess Doris, and Greek god Nereus who are said to have 50 daughters. The number associated with the mermaid Aerwyna is 6, but she is the prime focus of this investigation when the diamond safe on the ship is opened and almost totally cleaned out.

CSCI is an agency, about four blocks back from Dodge Island, the cruise terminal in Miami. Another four or so blocks away is the i95 highway, and Overtown. The i95 is south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 in Miami, Florida to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Overtown is said to be the worst project and slum area in the USA. The contrast in wealth could hardly be greater. On the streets, someone might be killed when a ten dollar drug deal goes bad, but on the ships, it would take a diamond heist for murder to be worth the risk. The call to the crime might seem ordinary, but the agents of the agency all know this could be another kill or be kill mission. The books are available on Amazon, hardback in large print, paperback and Kindle. The Audiobook is going through the process and will be released any day. All CSCI books are based around the cruise industry, and some follow a cruise route. Cruisers will be able to imaging most of the backdrop through the below-decks and the inner workings of the crew and cruise marketing will be new to them. The adventures all read like TV shows or movies, which they no doubt will all become eventually. Author Stuart St Paul comes from 50 years in the movie industry and is an award-winning writer and director. Find out more about the series and the author here on the CSCI series Amazon page. Or the author's page.

If you want to hear the first chapter read by the author, grab a coffee, put your feet up and take a twenty-minute break.

WORLD CRUISE

Have you ever cruised longer than a two week holiday period?

With the announcement by Royal Caribbean that they have a 9-month around-the-world cruise, with 150 stops, starting in December 2023, and leaving Miami. Helen mentioned it on our SAGA page.... My first cruise was 11 days at sea... I joined the ship in Antigua. Flying somewhere in the world was not new to me having worked as a stuntman in major world movies for many years. Another airport, another hotel room. However, this was a cabin.

I did not have to get up at some ridiculous hour to be taken to a film set. I could eat sitting down! Although that still seems odd to me on so many occasions as my food was always eaten while walking and talking. Food breaks were when we did recces or told the crew HoD's what was happening next. So how did I cruise? I had never cruised before. As someone with a history of planning major disasters around the world, I was asked, years ago, maybe in the 1980's ??? To design the Emmerdale Plane Crash, a major part of TV history that is still talked about. The plan was to move the sleepy daytime soap from the real village to a purpose-built one, and switch it to the evenings and make it every night. The public had no idea what was ahead. Neither did I. I was asked to stay as the action and event advisor and stayed 26 years. I only left Emmerdale to direct the Status Quo movie Bula Quo in Fiji which would make me not available to ITV for almost a year.

I was never expecting to be attached to a soap, not as a stunt and action designer. I also never expected to be sent on a cruise.

I was sent by the EMMERDALE producer as part of their PR. I was and I got hooked. The ship was the Black Watch and it was on a world cruise..Now I am a regular across many ships, inc SAGA next year, but I ask, what was your longest ever cruise?

https://www.dorisvisits.com/stuart-st-paul/

Since then I have written six thrillers that happen on a ship, and I have switched my office to the lounge, where I write on sea days looking out to sea. For an hour I go on stage and chat about my weird career and writing screenplays and novels, as well as mad disasters. Do I miss working up to 18 hours a day in the wet and mud for 6-days a week? No! I am not sure now why I did it.

Me on a rope is a painting by Quint Buchholz, a German painter, illustrator and author. It is called Giacomond, available as a print.