Thank you NetGalley for approving me for this book. A good read that I definitely enjoyed and am glad to have been able to read.

Thank you to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for this ARC. This book was great, a real page turner, read it on one sitting. However, the ending was so anticlimactic!!! It was such a disappointment. It did set up for a second book though so i would be interested to see who that one goes.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ -- This cover is perfection.

I recently had the pleasure of reading Murder on the Ocean Odyssey by Peter Jay Black and I must say, it was a delightful read from start to finish. The story revolves around Ruth Morgan, a food consultant who finds herself onboard the Ocean Odyssey working on their menu. However, things take a sinister turn when the captain is thrown overboard on the first night and Ruth and her fellow passengers find themselves stranded in the middle of the ocean with a killer on board.

What follows is an absorbing whodunnit with plenty of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very end. As someone who loves locked room mysteries, this book was right up my alley - and the setting of being trapped on a cruise ship only added to the suspense.

But what really stood out for me was the writing itself. It was perfection - descriptive without being overwhelming, engaging without being too heavy-handed. And Ruth Morgan herself was such a likable main character - I found myself rooting for her throughout.

Overall, Murder on the Ocean Odyssey is an excellent novel that mystery fans will thoroughly enjoy. I can’t wait to see where Black takes Ruth next. Highly recommended for fans of Cozy Mysteries and female detectives alike!

**ARC Via NetGalley**

A fun fast read. The story kept me guessing until the end. Shocking plot twist ending. I would definitely recommend.

As a freelance food consultant, Ruth Morgan travels Britain, advising restaurants, cafes, and hotels on their menus and recipes. So when she’s hired to work on board the Ocean Odyssey, she looks forward to gaining her sea legs.
However, when someone throws the captain overboard on the first night, Ruth and five other mysterious passengers discover they’ve sailed into a death trap, and it’s clear the killer won’t stop.
On a ship now adrift in the middle of the ocean, with no way to call for help, the dire situation forces Ruth to dust off her amateur sleuthing skills. She wants to help her fellow guests survive through the next three days, but can she unmask the killer before she becomes their next victim? This was a fun read and kept me reading until the wee hours. I hope there will be more in this series. Ruth is fun, interesting and I’d like to read more of her adventures. ThNk you NetGalley for the advanced readers copy for review.

An atmospheric cosy whodunit at sea on the impressive Ocean
Odyssey. A mixed group of passengers are part of a murder
Investigation on board.
Clues and red herrings are
thought through by sleuth Ruth.
A jolly good read.

If you enjoy Richard Osman then you will love this new series! I sincerely hope that the Ruth Morgan mysteries will continue to be published! This was a great traditional and cozy mystery and set on the high seas! It is a new type of locked room mystery and highly enjoyable!

Amazing book to read. Couldn't put it down at all. 5 star book. Highly recommend this book.
Already told a few people that they need to read this book.
Was drawn to it by the blurb.

Lovers of Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle, look alive! Murder on the Ocean Odyssey will keep you guessing, doubting and questioning everything you think you know right to the very end.

What happens when six strangers are led aboard a luxury cruise ship and they find themselves without a crew? Murder.

This was a power read right through for me as it quickly gave me an impression of a cozy who-dun-it. Our primary character Ruth was quirky and endearing from the first page and acting as our third person narrator made the telling all the more engaging. The sense of intrigue captured me from the beginning and had me curious to have the answers to my questions of "but why????" or "who!?"

There were a few fairly translucent elements that I won't call out specifically to avoid spoiling, but they were the easiest of the puzzles for me to root out.

Murder on the Ocean Odyssey is a great light read for anyone looking for a mystery without too much violence and many red herrings to fall for along the way. Perfect for a vacation, journey or day off!

I enjoyed this book so much. I love British cozy mysteries and I loved this first book in a new series. I will be anxiously awaiting the next book!!
I just reviewed Murder on the Ocean Odyssey by Peter Jay Black. #MurderontheOceanOdyssey #NetGalley
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A fun variant of Then There Were None, six people are invited on a new cruise ship because of their occupations yet told to keep what they do a secret. The first night goes well but when they awake the entire crew is missing and it’s just the six of them. One of the people, Ruth Morgan, food consultant, ex policewoman is the main character, and she’s a wonderfully interesting and quirky woman. She makes the whole mystery. When the killer is revealed it’s a disappointment because the answer is so far fetched, but Ruth more than makes up for any deficiency, and I look forward to the next installment.

Murderous shenanigans on the High Seas as a small group of disparate people becomes easy prey for a ruthless killer who enjoys bumping off each single one of them and never forgets to leave malicious clues on or next to the dead bodies...

A delicious and often humorous romp set on an abandoned luxury yacht off the coast of Southwestern England full of twists and turns and blessed with a delightful cast of exquisitely drawn characters that kept me guessing all the way to the end! A perfect whodunit that greatly deserves to be discovered and enjoyed without any moderation whatsoever!

Many thanks to Oakbridge and Netgalley for this terrific ARC!

A Killer On Board..
The first outing in the Ruth Morgan Mystery series finds the freelance food consultant on the high seas - aboard the Ocean Odyssey. It certainly beats her usual haunts but things are about to go drastically amiss. First the captain, then the guests - there’s a killer on board, a killer with no intention of restraining themselves. With the captain gone, the ship is adrift and with sign of help Ruth needs to step up. Can Ruth, albeit reluctantly, don her amateur sleuthing hat in time to save herself and the remaining passengers? A fun and frothy whodunit with a likeable protagonist in the eccentric and quirky Ruth, a well realised setting and a lighthearted mystery at its’ very heart.

I received this advance reader copy via Netgalley and the publisher, in return for an honest review. Think of this as ‘Clue’ set in a closed environment. This is the first in a new cozy series and a clever premise for the protagonist. As a self-employed ‘food enhancer’, Ruth travels England providing consultations on menus, ingredients, presentations, pairings, etc. When offered an exorbitant amount of money to evaluate a luxury cruise ship on a mini-trip before it opens to the public, she’s delighted and intrigued. Of course, not is all as it seems for her or the other passengers. When they wake to find the cruise ship empty, all communications to the outside world cut off and they’re moored out in the ocean, Ruth’s former life as a police officer comes in handy. And then her fellow passengers start dying!
Some things were implausible but I enjoyed the overall book. Ruth has great potential and I look forward to seeing where she goes next in her adventures.

3 stars. Ruth is on the worst cruise ever! She is a freelance food consultant and goes on a pre-launch yacht cruise where everything goes wrong. This is pretty much a "locked room" "stranded at sea" book but that's not a bad thing-the author (Peter Jay Black) does some nifty things that really hooked me into the book. It did take a while to get through the character introductions and scene setting but the story moved right along after that. The middle got a bit bogged down and there were some confusing things that kind of/sort of made sense at the end. The characters were a mishmash-some well done and a couple that were over the top and easy to figure out why they were there and doing what they did. But, overall, I enjoyed the book and did not see the ending coming-as usual I was the last to figure it out. Ruth is an awesome character and I look forward to more of her adventures as the series continues. I received a copy and this is my own opinion. #NetGalley

Really enjoyed this book! It's a short cozy mystery that's very easy to read with a great plot(twist)!

Murder on the Ocean Odyssey will be a great read for folks who like to solve puzzles. There is some character development and the setting is stagnant. Too many murders for me. I do not want to spoil for anyone but the revelation of the owner of the ship at the end was just too far-fetched for me. How would they get that much money ?

This was a well written book that kept me reading when I should have been doing other things. I loved the main character and how her life has not been easy but still she has made a success of it and how she managed to solve the puzzles presented to her. This was a crime story that covers all ages, as not quite from the golden age of crime and yet modern enough with modern technology interweaved to bring it up to date, I am eagerly awaiting the next in the series,

Ruth Morgan is the late-middle-aged “food enhancer” who takes on her first mystery in this projected series (two more are to be published in August and September).

Ruth travels to different eating establishments in England to consult on their ingredients, methods, and menus.
She is accompanied in this first outing by her grandson, Greg, on his gap year (before University).

Unfortunately, the plot is improbable, if clever, and the action goes on too long, as six passengers invited to evaluate a glamorous ship before its first luxury cruise try to figure out why they were abandoned by the crew, and how to signal their situation without any means of communication.

Most of the characters are one-dimensional, and their difficulties do not generate much interest. Even Ruth, more developed, is described too often as walking up and down endless flights of stairs and finding locked doors and how to unlock them.

This might be a “beach” book – but not one to read on an isolated vacation.

WOW, THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING

The murder mystery was very well written. The many plottwists kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the whole book. And the whole plot connected at the end. Amazing job!
The characters were also very likable. I especially liked the main character and her cat.
Because the language is very accessible and because there are short chapters, the book is suitable for everyone.
Definitely will recommend it to others!

I got to read this ARC book for free in exchange for an honest review. Thank you netgalley and Peter Jay black!