Death on the Danube

In Death on the Danube, recent divorcee Lana Hanson agrees to fill in as a tour guide for her friend Dotty Thompson's Wanderlust Tours business during a Christmas Eve conversation. Dotty wants Lana to travel to Budapest in order to lead a group after one of the guides was injured in a skiing accident. With no job and being 2 months behind in rent, Lana agrees to go. It's a perfect way for her to ring in the new year and also pay her rent. Upon arrival in Budapest, Hungary the tour quickly turns into a nightmare when Carl, Lana's fellow tour guide, is found floating in the Danube River. The question is whether he was murdered or died in an accident. With all of the tourists having had problems with Carl, Lana finds her self trapped with nine murder suspects. When another tour guest dies, Lana has to figure out who the killer is before she also ends up floating in the Danube River. Death on the Danube is the first book in the Travel Can Be Murder cozy mystery series by Jennifer Alderson.

I did not care for the book. The murder didn't happen until I was 60% in to the story. There was no investigation by Lana other than checking the internet to find out who her passengers were. She did not interview the passengers nor did she interface with Budapest law enforcement. She did nothing to solve the crime as I was promised by the publisher's summary of the book. The passenger's problems with Carl did not surface until after he was dead so there was no point to the novel. All I read about was the tour itinerary and how Lana felt as she was pampered by hotel staff.

This story was boring. No rating.

Night Shift

Night Shift is Robin Cook's 39th medical thriller. At 82 years of age he is still on staff at the Massachusetts Ear and Eye Infirmary in Boston. His first novel was published 46 years ago and I have enjoyed all but one, Intersection. He has had an incredible literary journey as well as a successful medical practice as an ophthalmologist.

The publisher's summary:  

Colleagues turned spouses, Dr. Laurie Montgomery and Dr. Jack Stapleton already have their plates full with demanding forensic pathology work and family pressures. The last thing they need is the sudden death of a colleague. Yet when Laurie's apparently vital and healthy longtime friend Dr. Sue Passero dies mysteriously in the hospital parking garage, an autopsy is required, and it falls uncomfortably under Laurie's purview as the chief medical examiner. So when Laurie asked Jack to take special care with the case, he can hardly refuse.

With his curiosity sparked by an inconclusive autopsy, the indefatigable Jack is compelled to resolve the case at hand, and sets out to investigate on-site at Manhattan Memorial Hospital, even though it means blatantly defying the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner's rules. What started out as an inquiry into Sue's tragic passing soon turns into a deadly and dangerous chess game between Jack and the clever and deranged killer, who might just administer another lethal blow if Jack isn't careful.

Night Shift is a first-rate story. With the story taking place within a two day period of time, the book has a supersonic pace that keeps you reading until it has been finished in one sitting. Cook's writing has not suffered with this long-standing series, while other authors seem to lose interest in their series and characters. What most likely keeps the series fresh for Cook is that the story always revolves around an issue or problem in medicine today. Cook does give the reader plenty of development with his characters but the main thrust of all of his novels is modern medicine. In Night Shift, the focus is on medical serial killers. 

I enjoyed revisiting the usual characters: Laurie, Jack, Vinnie who is Jack's assistant, and officer Lou Saldano. Vinnie and Lou are not central to this particular story. There are new characters such as the deceased Dr. Passero and her closest colleagues and they were interesting. Laurie and Jack's relationship has suffered since Laurie became his boss and, finally, he has asked her to step down. Laurie does not respond to the request in this installment of the series but perhaps she will think about it in the next novel. Jack has always been a little rough around the edges but it seems to me that he has become rougher since his wife became his boss.

The main problem for the story to resolve is to determine what killed Dr. Passero. Her autopsy showed that there was nothing wrong with her so Jack has to rely on information from those closest to her to come up with the reason that she was killed. He hears from a colleague that Dr. Passero was involved in hospital politics. Jack speaks with quite a few hospital staff before figuring it all out.

Night Shift is a superb entry for this series. 5 out of 5 stars.

2023 Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge

I have been debating for awhile whether I should join this challenge and have finally decided to give it a try. It is hosted by the Escape with Dollycas Blog. The Rules are simple. 

• By December 31, 2023 our bowls must be filled with one book (title) for each letter of the Alphabet. 
• Each letter should begin the book title--except for those pesky Q, X, and Z letters. For those 3 letters the word that begins with the challenge letter may appear anywhere in the title
• Each letter = one spoonful. 
• You can sign up any time. 
• The challenge runs the 2023 calendar year
• Reviews do not have to be posted
• Books can come from any genre
• Children's books and novellas are OK but they must be over 50 pages
• Crossovers are OK
• You can drop the "A" and "The" in the title if the first main word is the letter you are counting

I will be linking my blog post reviews on the challenge Facebook page. The group name is "Alphabet Soup Challenge."