London Rose is the social director aboard the Nachtmusik, a 100-passenger cruise ship on the Danube River. Sir Reggie, a Yorkshire Terrier, is her sidekick. I was drawn into the story right away, and sensed I was in the hands of a master storyteller. However, before the requisite murder occurs in this well-written cozy mystery, I had the feeling of being in the middle of a Rick Steves travelogue. Lots of description spouts from the mouths of London and her “stuffy” cohort, Emil the historian, as they lead a group of passengers on a tour of Regensburg, Bavaria. We get endless detail about statues, ancient Roman archways, cathedrals, bridges, WWII Nazis, Bavarian jazz, plus mouthwatering descriptions of German fare, including lager, of course!
Still, I couldn’t put the book down. Why? Because I wanted to find out what happens next! This author had me hooked from the start. The plot is clever, and I didn’t guess whodunit until near the end. I cared about London and the grumpy cruise guest who gives London such a hard time. I was beguiled by London’s mysterious, missing mother. I also wondered whether London and ship’s chef Bryce would get their budding romance off the ground.
The characters are fascinating, although to a certain extent, all of them have somewhat stilted speech patterns. London doesn’t talk like any 33-year-old I know, but more like someone much older. And the music played onboard is Cole Porter. Since this is a cozy, with no foul language, gore, or explicit sex, the speech patterns and musical tastes of the characters are probably acceptable to the novel’s target audience (that includes me). I received an advance review copy at no cost and without obligation from the author, and I would definitely be willing to purchase other books in this series. But the digital ARC I read contained errors, such as missing periods at the ends of sentences, and a paragraph broken in the middle of a sentence to start a new paragraph. It hasn’t been carefully edited.
If you enjoy travel and love beer, you’ll like this novel, and you’ll learn a lot about brewing.