The latest fast-paced cruise thriller in the series of Cruise Ship Crime Investigators novels is Blood Diamonds. As with all the CSCI books it can be read as a stand-alone novel as a great cruise adventure. It is available now in the Amazon Books section as a hardback large print, paperback, or Kindle. The Audiobook and loading to YouTube are planned for 2025.

Many cruise operators have several ships that are identical. There can be a theme to them and their names. In Blood Diamonds, it is nymphs and mermaids; the ship the MS Aerwyna is where the story plays out. Aerwyna means friend of the sea and is pronounced Aer-wy-na. She is the daughter of the Greek goddess Doris, and the Greek god Nereus who are said to have 50 daughters. The number associated with the mermaid Aerwyna is 6, but she is the prime focus of this investigation when the diamond safe on the ship is opened and almost totally cleaned out.

CSCI is an agency, about four blocks back from Dodge Island, the cruise terminal in Miami. Another four or so blocks away is the i95 highway, and Overtown. The i95 is the south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 in Miami, Florida to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Overtown is said to be the worst project and slum area in the USA. The contrast in wealth could hardly be greater. On the streets, someone might be killed when a ten-dollar drug deal goes bad, but on the ships, it would take a diamond heist for murder to be worth the risk. The call to the crime might seem ordinary, but the agents of the agency all know this could be another kill-or-be-killed mission. The books are available on Amazon, hardback in large print, paperback, and Kindle. The Audiobook is going through the process and will be released any day. All CSCI books are based around the cruise industry, and some follow a cruise route. Cruisers will be able to imagine most of the backdrop though the below decks and the inner workings of the crew and cruise marketing will be new to them. The adventures read like TV shows or movies, which they no doubt will all become eventually. Author Stuart St Paul comes from 50 years in the movie industry and is an award-winning writer and director. Find out more about the series and the author here on the CSCI series Amazon page. Or the author’s page.

The CSCI series is loaded into YouTube as sections of 12 minutes of audio playing to either a ship tour or a port guide. The series is free to listen to, and it starts here. get on board.