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Read more about the article Into the Eye of the Storm: exploring the world of ‘Cruise into Darkness’

Into the Eye of the Storm: exploring the world of ‘Cruise into Darkness’

by Dawn Brookes Introduction Cruise into Darkness plunges readers straight into the heart of a savage midnight storm aboard the luxury Coral Queen cruise ship. With deafening thunder and towering waves battering its hull, the vessel is thrown into chaos as a sudden blackout leaves it sailing blind. Security Chief Rachel Jacobi-Prince and senior nurse Sarah Bradshaw emerge as steadfast sentinels amid flickering lights and mounting panic. As power returns only to reveal a gruesome discovery in the laundry conveyors, what begins as a fight against the elements quickly transforms into a high-stakes investigation under the cover of darkness. In this post, we'll sail into the Coral Queen's storm-tossed corridors to meet the key players: Rachel, Sarah, Jason Goodridge, and Captain Peter Jenson. We'll explore the isolated maritime world that sets the stage for Dawn Brookes's taut murder mystery. Into the Storm: a ship adrift In the first pages I've painted the unflinching portrait of the Coaral Queen under siege. A tempest of wind and rain batters the ship, tossing it like a toy on the ocean's wrathful surface. In the dead of night, the power surges and dies, plunging corridors into inky blackness. Seasick passengers clutch walls and even seasoned crew members exchange panicked glances. The blackout feels like the force of nature rather than the opening chord of a sinister orchestration. As the vessel lists and creaks, you sense that every dark hallway and maintenance tunnel holds a secret waiting to surface. Rachel Jacobi-Prince: security chief on the front line Rachel Jacobi-Prince is the newly appointed indomitable security chief. Thrown from her bed by a violent wave, she refuses medical aid for a gash above her temple and glues it together herself. When power returns only to reveal a uniformed woman's body on the laundry conveyor belt, Rachel takes…

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Travel Journal Asia 1982 Day 8

Wednesday June 23rd 1982 Our last day in Singapore. Sad to leave in so many ways, but we're excited to be starting the next leg of our journey. We realise that we have lived a life of luxury for the past 7 days that won't continue! After saying our goodbyes to Suzie and her friends, we were amazed and delighted when, at the last minute, she and her cousin Bernie told us they have decided to join us in Malaysia. They'll get the bus tomorrow evening and we'll meet them on Friday morning. We boarded the bus to take us to Butterworth and it left at 7pm. We were concerned it might not have air conditioning – quite the opposite!

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Travel Journal from 1982

Forty years ago today, I embarked on the trip of a lifetime. A friend and I set off for Asia and visited eight countries over three months. This is extract from the journal I kept is from day one. I'm keeping it pretty much as I wrote it, so not making too many corrections. Day 1: June 16th 1982 Weather Forecast for the day Source: https://weatherspark.com/h/m/147876/1982/6/Historical-Weather-in-June-1982-at-London-Heathrow-Airport-United-Kingdom#Figures-Temperature The weather forecast was correct; a dull and drizzly day when we left. Well, today's the big day. Woke up at 9:30am following a wonderful sleep. Who knows whether we'll sleep tonight, perhaps not! We have slight hassles at the moment, our reliable travel agent, alias Mr Messy hasn't quite sorted out our insurance correctly, we haven't got the premium in other words – so it's 12 midday and we're off to Regent St to collect it. It's all part of what's going to be a totally disorganised holiday for two in Asia. Perhaps we should have gone for two weeks to Bognor Regis! Poor old J is having ladies problems at the moment! Went to travel agent and sorted out insurance (sigh!). Also gained his father's address in Delhi. One more for the road. We contacted the agent's father when in Delhi a few months later and were invited for dinner. I'll cover this in a future post. Arrived at Heathrow at 1:30pm and checked in. Having a quiet time preparing ourselves for the flight. 3:30pm passed through customs. J was searched on her way through by a lady who was rather sour faced and she became even more unhappy when I laughed at the prospect of J being towed away before we even set off! We're now sitting in the boarding lounge waiting to board a rather ferocious looking aeroplane which has its…

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Monday 7th March 2022

I finalised events for the literature festival I chair and managed to get them all up on the website. The day pass tickets are now up for sale, so if you live near to Derby, feel free to take a look here. I'm continuing edits on my two-thirds finished draft of Murder in the Highlands and made steady progress with it today. It's starting to come together and I'm getting a handle on the characters and suspects, developing them at the same time. I've spent a few months exploring the social media platform Tiktok and will be creating more videos for my author presence there. If you would like to follow me you can find me here.

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Read more about the article Morality in Crime Writing

Morality in Crime Writing

Introduction As a writer of murder mysteries I have had to make some decisions in relation to the ethical dilemmas of writing about crime and murder. Some authors go down the road of graphic violence and explicit detail while others steer clear, focusing on the mystery element rather than the crime itself. Sometimes there appears to be an appetite in society for sensationalist gratuitous violence or sex, and scenes that shock within suspense fiction. This is often coupled with frequent use of strong language whether or not it fits the story. It's almost expected. But do we always need a sledgehammer to break an egg? Sensationalist Fiction Sensationalist fiction is not new and emerged as a genre in the Victorian era. Murder was just one of the many scandalous topics addressed in books of the late 1800s (Rubery, 2011). The difference between then and now is that such literature produced an outcry when it was first introduced, whereas now there is a general hunger for more of the same. Why might this be? Chandler (1950) argued that the classic genre of crime novels was too detached from reality due to the murders occurring off-screen. He was scathing of classic crime writers such as Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan-Doyle, arguing that their characters lacked depth. His opinion was that hard-boiled (at the time, American) crime portrayed the real world and crime writers should incorporate this. His point being that fiction is intended to be realistic. I agree with Ainsworth (2014) who argues in her dissertation that Chandler missed the point that, although the murders are more subtle in classic crime, writers such as Sayers addressed real psychological issues. Shell shock being one of these (Sayers husband had been a sufferer post WWI). Arthur Conan-Doyle also included the topic of nerves and trauma suffering in his…

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