What do you do when you’ve buried four husbands and not yet found a fifth?
Wealthy Lady Bumstead takes a cruise down the Mekong in Vietnam with a hired female companion, Anne de Tonkin. Annie is not just a kind old lady, she is a brilliant listener and soon knows all about the other travellers. But, on the last day of the cruise she is murdered.
Lady Bumstead, unable to see any reason why Annie should be murdered, is convinced the killer was after her. She hires the SeeMs Detective Agency to protect her and find the killer. At the same time she decides to do some sleuthing herself, and, with the help of her high powered hearing aid, she begins listening to all the conversations around her.
As the SeeMs Detectives investigate the crime, they find Annie had a rich past and connections with almost everyone else on the boat. There seem to be plenty of reasons for killing her, but who did the
deed?
Will Lady Bumstead and the SeeMs Detectives find the killer before he/she strikes again? Will Lady Bumstead find a fifth husband? Or will she become another victim?
Written in the first person by Lady Bumstead this novel will be particularly enjoyed by readers of Agatha Christie and A Man Called Otto. Or anyone interested in whodunnits.
Gina has worked as a pilot, physiotherapist, freelance writer and dog breeder. As a child, Gina’s parents hated travelling and never went further than Jersey. As a result she became travel-addicted and spent years bumming around SE Asia, China and Australia, where she worked in a racing stables in Pinjarra, South of Perth. She then lived and worked in various places in Spain, the
USA and London before settling in West Sussex with her husband and dogs. This is her fifth crime novel in the SeeMs Detective Agency series. This book is set in Vietnam.
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My thoughts: I found Lady Bumstead (yes, it’s a silly name) quite self involved and annoying, she claims not to understand why her family don’t want anything to do with her, and even seems rather fed up to be on holiday. She’s not nice to or about the companion, Annie, that she’s hired, or her fellow travellers.
When Annie is found murdered in the cabin next door during the cruise part of the trip (an incredible tour of Vietnam that most people would be delighted to be on), there’s plenty of suspects – she seems to have been connected to every one of the guests.
The SeeMS Detective Agency are hired, by Lady Bumstead’s companion agency to look after her and find out who killed Annie. They also have a link to a family on the trip. The only witness to Annie’s death is Catherine’s granddaughter Lagatha.
As the team look into Annie’s past and the passengers on the Mekong cruise ship, Lady Bee is thinking back over her own past – her collection of husbands, her former career as a nurse and tries to work out which passenger is one of former stepsons.
Funny, clever and enjoyable, Annie’s story is full of twists and surprises, and the agency have their hands full solving the case, there’s almost too many suspects!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 