Murder at the Marina

Saturday, July 7, 2018


Today, I'm welcoming Ellen Jacobson to this blog and I have the admit Murder at the Marina sounds fun and intriguing, despite the subject matter. So, now for Ellen ... 

Thanks for hosting me on your site today to celebrate the release of my cozy mystery, Murder at the Marina. This is the first book in the lighthearted and humorous Mollie McGhie Sailing Mystery series, featuring a reluctant sailor turned amateur sleuth.

My own sailing adventures and misadventures inspired me to write this series. My husband and I bought our first sailboat in New Zealand in 2012. After a couple of years cruising in those beautiful waters, we returned to the States and bought a bigger boat which we moved onto in 2015. We've since cruised in Florida and the Bahamas, labored over endless boat projects, and worked to keep our cruising kitty (savings) topped up.

I wanted to reflect my experiences learning to sail, cruising and living aboard a boat, and being part of the boating community in my cozy mysteries. You could say that there's a little bit of me in my main character, Mollie.

I thought I'd share one of the boating tidbits which I wrote about in Murder at the Marinanamely, all of the terminology that sailors use. When Mollie first gets involved in the sailing community, she has to learn all sorts of new words such as “winch” and “starboard.” Then there are the terms like “bow,” which she associates with gift-wrapped presents, but which means something entirely different when it comes to boats.

I can relate to Mollie's frustration—learning to sail is hard enough, having to do it another language is even worse. Why can't sailors just say “right” instead of “starboard” and “left” instead of “port”? It will be interesting to see over the course of the series how Mollie copes with learning about all of the more technical aspects of boat ownership and whether she becomes fluent in “Nauticalese.”

If you'd like to learn more about Mollie and her sailing adventures, you can find details about Murder at the Marina below.

Blurb

A dilapidated sailboat for your anniversary—not very romantic. A dead body on board—even worse.

Mollie McGhie is hoping for diamonds for her tenth wedding anniversary. Instead, her husband presents her with a dilapidated sailboat. Just one problem—she doesn’t know anything about boats, nor does she want to.

When Mollie discovers someone murdered on board, she hopes it will convince her husband that owning a boat is a bad idea. Unfortunately, he’s more determined than ever to fix the boat up and set out to sea.

Mollie finds herself drawn into the tight-knit community living at Palm Tree Marina in Coconut Cove, a small town on the Florida coast. She uncovers a crime ring dealing in stolen marine equipment, investigates an alien abduction, eats way too many chocolate bars, adopts a cat, and learns far more about sailing than she ever wanted to.

Can Mollie discover who the murderer is before her nosiness gets her killed?


Buy Links

Murder at the Marina—A Mollie McGhie Sailing Mystery #1
Print ISBN 978-1-7321602-1-7
eBook ISBN 978-1-7321602-0-0
Mystery


Author Bio

Ellen Jacobson writes mystery and scifi/fantasy stories. She is the author of the “Mollie McGhie Sailing Mystery” series. She lives on a sailboat with her husband, exploring the world from the water. When she isn't working on boat projects or seeking out deserted islands, she blogs about their adventures at The Cynical Sailor.

You can connect with Ellen on:

The Cynical Sailor Blog - http://thecynicalsailor.blogspot.com/
The Cynical Sailor Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/TheCynicalSailor/
Newsletter Sign-up - http://eepurl.com/dpy5sv

5 comments:

  1. This sounds like a fun book and the beginning of a fun series. I like cozy mysteries (as opposed, say, to hard crime fiction). I like them because they usually are puzzle mysteries and have some humor in them, as this one appears to do.

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  2. Maybe she'll learn how to talk like a pirate!

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  3. Thanks so much for hosting me on your blog! Very much appreciated.

    Alex - It would be pretty funny if Mollie started talking like a pirate. A possibility for a future book. :-)

    Elizabeth - Humor and solving the puzzle are some of the reasons I enjoy cozies too.

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  4. I know there are reasons why sailors use those terms, but it does seem silly to a non-sailor. Congrats on your new book.

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  5. Happy to host you Ellen. Thanks for dropping in, guys.

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Don't be shy, I'd love to hear what you think.