Bodies of Water (A Sarah Deane Mystery)

By J.S. Borthwick

Book Overview

After a passenger on a luxury yacht cruise is murdered, those left on board are both suspects and potential victims. An English teacher and her boyfriend try to sort out the suspects: the eccentric evangelist who owns the yacht, his stern secretary and sister of the victim, the voluptuous chef, the deckhand.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312926030
• ISBN13: 9780312926038
• Release Date: July 1991
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Length: 10 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Enjoyable New England boating mystery

Grad student/teaching fellow Sarah Deane and her boyfriend, Alex McKenzie, M.D., go for a cruise on a luxury yacht owned by fatherly millionaire evangelist David Mallory, who distributes Bibles to churches along the Maine coast and, as a sideline, keeps a lookout for suspicious-looking boats that might harbor drug dealers. Before long, the oddest and most unpleasant crew member is found dead in the water. This book might be just your cup of tea if you enjoy a leisurely-paced cozy with idiosyncratic characters and plenty of literary references: John Buchan's Richard Hannay, hero of the classic thriller "The 39 Steps," holds the key to solving the mystery. (And, if only Sarah had read it, the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane" might have shed further light on the case.)

Cozy mystery

This was a cute mystery. At times, the answers to some of the mysteries seem obvious and one doubts the intelligence of the protagonist (herself a college professor.) The imagery of sailing on the Maine coast is often vivid. All in all, this is a very cozy mystery that makes you want to continue solving crimes with the hero.