Family

There is a particular kind of friendship that only fiction can fully honour. It's the kind that goes beyond shared history and mutual affection into something rarer and more resilient. The kind that survives secrets, arguments, disasters, and the occasional dead body turning up at extremely inconvenient moments! Rachel Prince and Sarah Bradshaw have that kind of friendship. Over fifteen books, and counting, the bond between Rachel Prince and the Coral Queen's ship's nurse has been one of the great pleasures of this series. It is not the flashy centrepiece of the story, overshadowed as it sometimes is by murders, mysteries, and the complicated business of Rachel's love life. But it is the emotional backbone of every book, and nowhere is that more evident than in Honeymoon Cruise Murder, where both women arrive at the start of the voyage carrying something they haven't yet been able to share with each other. The Chief Bridesmaid The book opens with Rachel's wedding, and Sarah is right at the heart of it; first among the bridesmaids, as she should be. The two women grew up in the same village, have been best friends forever, and their parents are friends. Sarah has been part of the fabric of Rachel's life in a way that goes far deeper than circumstance. When Rachel finally walks back down the aisle as Mrs Jacobi-Prince, Sarah is just behind her, exactly where she belongs. But even in the joy of the day, Rachel notices that something is off. Sarah has been different over the past week: more distant, quieter than usual, and carrying a weight she hasn't shared. The two friends have barely had a moment alone together in the run-up to the wedding, always surrounded by family and preparations and the relentless logistics of a big day. Rachel files the observation…