The Body on the Lido Deck: A Toni Day Mystery by Jane Bennett Munro

Toni is on vacation with her husband, mother and stepfather.  A cruise is a great way to relax, visit, and enjoy yourself.  At least that's the idea.  It's a bit hard to do when you notice that you have blood dripping by you on the lido deck.  It's hard to read your book when a body almost falls on you.  If that's not enough to shock and scare you, it's even worse when her head falls in the pool.  The body has been decapitated by the roof on lido deck...

Book Review Buzz gave me the opportunity to read this book for review (thank you).  It has been published and is available now on Amazon.

Toni is no shrinking violet since she's a pathologist by trade.  She examines the body, takes pictures, and then gets help.  Things are different on cruise ships.  The local police came and looked but the boat has to leave to continue the cruise.  The first thing that happens is the woman's head disappears from the pool.  They're not sure if they believe Toni or not.  The Royal Barbados police just know she's American and they're all questionable.

When the ship gets underway, she and her stepfather decide to do some investigating themselves.  After all, he's retired from Scotland Yard.  She looks over dead bodies for a living.  They don't like mysteries and this one is a good one.

There are two more deaths, bodies appear and disappear in the cooler, and everyone is a suspect.  There's a long tradition within the crews of such ships that not only do the parents work there, their sons do, too.  With connections to a murder 25 years ago, it seems the answer to the mystery is in the bowels of the ship.  But the murderer really doesn't want to be found.

There's action all the way through the story, the pace is fast, and the story flows smoothly.  This is well-written and done nicely.  Toni almost doesn't make it, but she does.  That's good because I'm looking forward to reading more about her and her family crime solving unit.