I may not have been in the mood, but I found this a mediocre story and contrived setting for a serial killer who joins a Carribean cruise to take revenge on members of the Lansing, Michigan police force who are there to celebrate a wedding. Too many murders and too much carelessness. 1.5 stars. ( )

Caribbean Moon
by Rick Murcer
3 Faerie Points

Before I start in on the main review of this book I need to go on a bit of a rant about something that ticks me off about books, which was brought back up for me with this particular book. In one section of this book, I won't mention where due to spoilers, the author has a character talk about fags and queers in a basic derogatory manner. In Murcer's case I can forgive him somewhat because it is from the viewpoint of a killer, but a part of me can't even forgive him. If a writer wants to talk down about gay people I think there needs to be a bit of a balance in their book where they put something positive about them as well, so that readers that may identify in that particular persuasion do not instantly want to throw the book (or in my case their kindle) out of a moving vehicle. When did it become okay to just blatantly be hateful in writing with no balance? I would have given this particular book a higher rating if it hadn't been for this simple inclusion on Murcer's part.

There was another less minor issue that I had with Murcer's writing of "Caribbean Moon", which was that he included religion sometimes in the weirdest spots. A character would be dealing with something very profound on the case and suddenly they would mention God or have a thought about him. I understand a writer that believes in Christ including those elements in their work, but it needs to feel organic in the story. There was one point of the book where it was organic and felt very much a natural part of the story. This was in the preacher woman that was on one of the islands. This didn't feel like Murcer was forcing religion into his story. I understand that I am not an author and nor should I criticize heavily on any aspect of writing, but again elements of a story need to feel natural to the reader. The inclusions of religion in many spots of this book felt like an after thought that Murcer has shoved in to appeal to the Christian market. It doesn't work that well here.

The murder mystery aspect of this story and the character of Manny Williams, however, does work masterfully in this story. The story is just a fun little romp on a cruise ship that turns deadly. Murcer makes you feel like you have been on a cruise even if you never have (I never have been) because he tells us that the basic behavior of them is crazy and over the top. This drags us into the world that Williams finds himself in. The story develops in a manner that is believable and at times jaw-dropping. One of the only issues with the mystery aspect of the book is the sheer number of people that end up dead in the book or have something horrible happen to them. It feels like a bit much, but it adds to the urgency of the story as well, thus I am not sure I would have changed this aspect, but still it could be seen as a deficit to another reader of the book.

I would give Murcer's "Caribbean Moon" a solid three faerie points with a few knocks coming off for some of the above issues I have mentioned. If you are looking for a story where you can just try to figure out what is really going on in the story without a lot of moral questions then this could be the book for you. It is definitely one that I could see people sitting on their lawns in their lawn chairs devouring in a single sitting. ( )

In CARRIBEAN MOON, Lansing Michigan Sergeant Detective Manny Williams joins some of the other members of his department in Puerto Rico and then on a Carribean cruise as they celebrate the marriage of one of their own. As they leave their hotel to get to the ship, he sees police cars and an ambulance pull up. He continues to the ship, knowing something major happened but he realized he was on vacation.
Once aboard the ship, however, the gruesome murders continue, the first victims being members of their group. Williams recognizes the similarity between these murders and some he had solved in Lansing a decade ago. The ship’s head of security is incompetent and resents Williams’s attempts to help find the killer. As the murders continue, the ship’s captain calls in a local detective and the FBI. Soon all the trained security people are involved in trying to find the murderer.
Rick Murcer tell the story from the Williams’s perspective as well as from the killers’ and does hold the reader’s attention, though the descriptions of the murders and of the bodies were repeated each time even though they were almost all identical.
Since Williams seemed to know who the murderer was early on and the man was 6'4" tall, it shouldn’t have been that difficult to figure out who he was by using the photos taken of all the passengers as they boarded the ship. There were some witnesses and they should have been shown all the pictures of men who fit the description. Looking for fingerprints and other identifying evidence takes a while and may not have been necessary at that point.
I also found some situations unrealistic. For example, Williams had a partner who was killed when he went on an assignment by himself, against protocol. Everyone involved with this case should have known to be with someone else at all times.
There are also some murders that are not identified as such. Once they began, all deaths upon the ship should have been investigated.
The end of the story introduces important material that is not telegraphed earlier so the reader is blindsided.
This book was a free Amazon download. ( )

I read CARIBBEAN MOON to add to my list for the 2011 Global Reading Challenge, but it didn't quite give me the "set in another culture" South American experience I had been hoping for.

Actually what kept me reading is that most of the action takes place on board a cruise liner, or in the excursion activities associated with it, that very closely resembled a luxury cruise experience I had a couple of years ago. Not the murders, let me hasten to explain, our cruise was very tame by comparison, and that personal experience left me feeling that the author had got the setting absolutely right.

Perhaps the plot itself strains the bounds of credibility - a wedding party of small town cops from Lansing Michigan targeted by a psychopathic killer because of the role they played in a murder conviction - but the setting gives the author plenty of latitude. The nature of the plot means that it is really a police procedural/thriller involving a combined FBI/US police team conducting an investigation on board a cruise liner instead of on land. "Foreign/global" culture really doesn't come into it.

The workaholic hero, Sergeant Detective Manny Williams, a "natural" profiler, supposedly on holidays on the cruise with his colleagues, his boss and the DA and her husband, is a credible character. There are also some very gruesome murders that equally strain the bounds of credibility.

So while CARIBBEAN MOON isn't the best written book in the world (and does have the occasional "proof reading" error), it is a good debut effort, and a reasonable page turner. Many of the reviews on Amazon comment how they didn't see the ending coming. I must admit that about 15% before the end, in Amazon e-book terms, I realised what the next plot twist would be, simply because the action appeared to be over, and I was wondering what the author might do to extend the book. ( )

Decent plot. Lame dialogue. ( )