The Corpse with the
Diamond Hand by Cathy Ace
is a new stand-alone installment in the Cait Morgan mystery series.
Narrated
from the first person perspective of Cait Morgan, the novel is a fun,
mind-provoking cozy mystery.
Cait
and Bud Anderson have recently said their "I do's" and are on a
two-week honeymoon cruise to Hawaii, but the mystery-free getaway changes
course two days before the trip is over, when Tommy Trussler, the ship's card
instructor drops dead on the game floor.
To
everyone on board, it appears that Tommy died of natural causes, but to the
mystery-solving psychoanalyst, the man appeared to have been poisoned.
As
soon as the incident occurs we are introduced to Ezra Eisen, the head of
security on the ship, the nurse, doctor and other ship personal, in addition to
the people who were in the ship's game room, each of whom has a secret to hide
and a reason to kill Tommy, as Cait later discovers.
Cait
has a special skill that has enabled her to solve crimes in the past. She literally
remembers everything. However, she explains to Ezra how people perceive things,
saying "As human beings, we're not
capable of experiencing the world as it is – we always experience it as we are,
with all our faults, flaw, preconceptions and prejudices filtering and infusing
everything we perceive."
Since
the novel is narrated from Cait's perspective, we get her first impressions on
everything. She's quick to notice things, especially the slight tremors and
changes in people's movement or behaviour. For example, a little after Tommy
dies, we meet with the captain of the ship.
"But the captain's micro-expressions told me he
was still feeling the weight of the suspicious death on his shoulders."
One
of the lines that made me smile while reading and that is interesting for
people looking to enter the mystery or crime genre was something medical, to
which the Rachel, the ship's doctor said "It
doesn't always happen, and it certainly doesn't happen as often as those who
create fiction would have us believe, but it seems to have happened here." It
is both funny and ironic.
I
liked the author's use of "show don't tell" and her ability to make
the reader see, smell and connect things in her book with real life. For example,
when Cait says "My nostrils told me we
were nearing the medical area," the
reader immediately remembers the smell of anaesthesia and disinfectant.
Although
there isn't character development, as is the case with most mystery novels, yet
the reader comes out enlightened about several notions and ideas in life.
The Corpse with the
Diamond is not free of gala dinners, elegant dresses, tasty food, that had me
wishing to go on a cruise ship, and confrontations.
I
enjoyed Cait's comments to herself as well as her quick assessments and body
language readings of others. The novel was fairly-paced. Although it covers a
period of two days, still I felt the ship's passengers were doing "a
lot" in those two days.
I
also liked how the author managed to make every character have a motive and I enjoyed
the gathering they had where Cait drew out the perpetrator(s).
Finally,
I was intrigued by the pun in the name of the book The Corpse with the Diamond, but I'll
leave it at that and that it had me going in another direction.
"Experience changes us all…Sometimes it hits us
like a wall, so fast we cannot fail to acknowledge it. Other times it seeps
through the cracks in our daily lives until we accommodate it, almost without
noticing. But it changes us all."
About
the Author:
Originally
from Wales, now-Canadian Cathy Ace writes the Cait Morgan Mysteries. Her
series has found her criminal psychologist, foodie sleuth stumbling upon Corpses
with a Silver Tongue, a Golden Nose, an Emerald Thumb, Platinum
Hair, Sapphire Eyes and, now, a Diamond Hand during her
globetrotting. The winner of The Bony Blithe Award for Best Light Mystery in
2015, when not helping Cait solve traditional, closed-circle mysteries, Cathy’s
a keen gardener, ably assisted by her green-pawed chocolate Labradors.
Note: I received an Advanced Readers' Copy (ARC) of The Corpse with the Diamond in
exchange for an honest review as part of a blog tour for the book via Lori's
Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours.
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