Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

My husband and I are freshly retired and we are making up for lost time planning vacations since we haven’t been able to travel much over the years. One of the things we are currently debating is whether or not we want to go on a cruise. I’ve been on two, albeit both a very long time ago, but he hasn’t been on one at all. We are both interested in cruising to someplace we haven’t been before, on a small to medium size ship, and we would love it to be an older crowd, so the Disney cruise would not be for us. Because of our google searches I’m sure, we are now regularly receiving brochures in our mail.

Needless to say, when I saw a soon to be published book on NetGalley with a cruise ship featured on the cover, I immediately requested it. Thank you, NetGalley and Rising Action Paperbacks, for the ARC!

Elizabeth Sails by Kristin Owens is a cozy mystery that doesn’t involve a murder at all (just some natural deaths of older family members). The whole story takes place almost entirely on the Cunard luxury liner the Queen Elizabeth. The main character Beth (Elizabeth, a nod to the name of the ship) is sent on an all-expense paid cruise to search for her recently deceased aunt’s will. It’s a bit of a stretch, especially considering how much money is doled out to her to get ready for the cruise and a huge ship’s credit once she actually boards, but her aunt had very quirky ways and had a specific goal in mind: to get Beth to live a little, to get out of her apartment, and experience a bit of the world.

Beth is basically a MESS. She has anxiety and something she calls “The List” which denotes all the things in life she is afraid of, and many of which she will encounter on this cruise.

The author is a writer with many bylines to her credit, and she is also a professional sommelier. She notes in the acknowledgements at the back of the book that she loves cruising, and it shows. She knows the Queen Elizabeth like the back of her hand. She deftly handles the mystery part of the novel, dropping clues in the form of haikus for Beth to solve, which Beth loves because of her job as a ghostwriter.

The most interesting part of this book for me was the personal growth that Beth experiences throughout her cruise. Each step along the way, from shopping for cruise clothes in NYC to flying to Southampton to board the ship, to all of the things she must do to find the next clue each time, all of them involve working through her anxiety and panic attacks to move forward. Because of the conditions of the will and the NY estate laws, she has no choice but to muscle through each nerve-wracking task or her aunt’s stepson will end up with all of the money, and he is a real piece of work.

Beth uses things she has learned from her therapist over the last 6 years to deal with her anxiety on the ship, and each day, each panic attack-inducing task, each frustrating step backwards, she slowly starts to realize she can cross things off The List, she is able to see herself as stronger than she thought.

I enjoyed this book mostly because I really love cozy mysteries, but I also loved the setting of this book aboard a cruise ship, the descriptions of the dining room, the great food, the breakfast buffet, the high-end shops, the wine and cocktails, the entertainment, the pools and deck chairs, it was all enough to whet my appetite for a future vacation at sea.

Elizabeth Sails will be published on October 8, 2024. And, apparently, this book is #1 in a series, where Beth ends up on the other ships of the Cunard line, one by one! Sign me up, I’m up for more of Beth and her adventures. All aboard and bon voyage!