Fifteen Voyages and Counting: Why Rachel Prince Keeps Sailing Back Into Our Hearts

There is a particular kind of reader who discovers a series and immediately feels a pang of sadness that they won't be able to experience it for the first time again. Rachel Prince readers know exactly what that feeling is. If you are new to the Coral Queen and Rachel Prince, you have a glorious stretch of reading ahead of you. And if you have been with Rachel from the very beginning? Well, Honeymoon Cruise Murder — book seven in this beloved series — is the instalment where everything you have been hoping for finally arrives. Fifteen books in, the Rachel Prince Mysteries show absolutely no sign of running out of sea. Where It All Began It started, as the best mystery series so often do, with a seemingly simple premise. Rachel Prince is an off-duty police officer who finds herself on a cruise ship where she encounters a body. A Cruise to Murder, book one, introduces readers to the Coral Queen, to Rachel's instincts and her wry sense of humour, and to the ship's cast of recurring characters. It also introduced Lady Marjorie Snellthorpe, the indomitable octogenarian aristocrat who becomes one of the great scene-stealers of modern cozy fiction. From that first voyage, it was clear that I had created something with real staying power: a world warm enough to return to again and again, with enough wit, heart, and genuine mystery to keep each new book feeling fresh. The Voyage So Far: Fifteen Books For those who want to read their cozy cruise ship mysteries in order — and with a series this rich in character development, that is very much recommended — here is where to begin: A Cruise to Murder Deadly Cruise Killer Cruise Dying to Cruise A Christmas Cruise Murder Murderous Cruise Habit Honeymoon Cruise Murder ← you are here A Murder Mystery Cruise…

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Cozy Mystery Writing Conventions

Genre Fiction I’m a mystery writer with my fiction falling into the cozy/cosy crime niche. I've now published seven books in one series with an eighth on the way. Cosy mysteries and the majority of detective novels fall into the category of writing known as genre fiction and on the whole, follow a defined set of conventions. Agatha Christie Monument These conventions/rules developed out of the Golden Age of Crime novels. Authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Margery Allingham, Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie created the widely recognised genre. The cosy mystery has evolved over the past few decades as new writers attempt to stretch boundaries, although many still adhere to the Decalogue or ten commandments described by Knox in 1929.  Escapist Literature I admit to being challenged by proponents of literary fiction and literary debate such as Albert Camus, but I prefer to write books to enable people to escape from the reality of life. This is one of the reasons I write books where the criminal is always found and justice is served. The popularity of genre fiction could highlight the need for people to feel safe while - at least in terms of crime fiction - being given the opportunity to experience vicarious excitement. The excitement comes through readers exercising their brains to solve the puzzle, working alongside the sleuth.  As a former nurse, I studied Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs in great detail. He described the need to feel safe in the hierarchy. He postulated human beings needed to satisfy certain needs in order to grow, mentally and physically. Maslow’s definition of safety was more about protection from external elements. Such safety requires a person to have shelter and security of body and mind; order in the world outside; laws that reinforced safety; stability in work and…

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