All At Sea
DETAILS: Series: The Stonebridge Mysteries, #6 Publisher: Red Dog Press Publication Date: February 17, 2022 Format: eBook Length: 96 pages Read Date: February 17, 2022
Why Would They Say This?
It’s been 6 months since Christmas and Adam and Colin haven’t had the opportunity to show up the police since then. They even think about their crime-solving in the past tense.
Still, when circumstances put the two of them on a cruise to Italy before Adam’s wedding, his fiancé makes him promise to stay out of trouble. Adam says it’s his goal on a couple of occasions. It’s said so often that I could hear Toby Ziegler shouting:
Toby: You want to tempt the wrath of whatever from high atop the thing?
Sam: No.
Toby: Then go outside, turn around three times, and spit. What the hell is the matter with you?
Of course, Adam and Colin don’t have a fictional White House Communications Chief yelling at them and trouble finds them.
The Trouble
On their first night onboard, the duo attends a dinner for first-class passengers where they meet some of their fellow travelers, including an art dealer; a B-List film star (maybe a C-lister); an eccentric elderly woman traveling with a classic painting; and a young man in his early 20s who may not be as well-off as he seems.
Late that night, Colin finds the woman after she’d been attacked in her room and her painting had been stolen. Colin’s always been the more considerate of the pair, but given his profession, he seems more driven to help this victim. He promises they’ll find the painting and he spends the rest of the cruise concerned about her well-being.
Adam’s a little torn between looking for the thief and keeping his promise to Helena and staying out of trouble—naturally, curiosity (and the realization that they really have nothing better to do with their time on the ship) wins out and Adam gets in way over his head with the search for the painting. The fairly dynamic duo’s hunt takes them all over the luxury ship as well as to the streets of Barcelona and Lisbon, new territory for them, but in the end, their tenacity and cleverness help them as always.*
* Their habit of accusing almost every suspect until something sticks doesn’t hurt either.
A Theft? That’s What They’re Investigating?
Easy now, don’t worry. There is a murder, it just shows up far later in the book than we’re used to.
I was actually enjoying the lack of a corpse and was hoping we’d get all the way through a novella without one. If only for the sheer novelty. But once the body was discovered, I enjoyed what it meant for the plot—and it just felt strange to read a Stonebridge Mystery where everyone was alive.
So, what did I think about All At Sea?
I was excited to get the email yesterday morning with the link to my pre-order, so I could dive into this (no pun intended, but hey, I’ll take it). Any day spent with Adam and Colin is a good one in my book and this entry in The Stonebridge Mysteries did not disappoint.
At 96 pages, there’s not a lot to be said about All At Sea, beyond recommending it. This novella contained a couple of my favorite sentences by McDonald, some great characters in the suspect pool, and the most dangerous moment this series has had yet.
Would this work as a jumping-on point? Yeah, it’d work. I think you’re better served by starting from #1, especially as these are so short that it wouldn’t take much effort to catch up. But if you’re not up for that, you’ll get into the groove just fine from here. I’ll warn you—once you start with these, you won’t stop. Adam and Colin are addictive.
This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.
My thanks to Red Dog Press for the invitation to participate in this reveal and the materials they provided.
