Final Sail by Elaine Viets

Final Sail by Elaine Viets ISBN-13: 9780451237705 Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Obsidian Mystery Released: May 7, 2013

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
Husband and wife PI team Helen Hawthorne and Phil Sagemont both have their hands full. Phil tries to catch a sexy gold digger who may have killed her elderly new husband for his fortune. Meanwhile, Helen poses as the new ship stewardess on a luxury yacht to catch a jewel smuggler. But between serving drinks to the snobs, scrubbing floors, and cleaning up after seasick passengers, how will she find time to investigate?


My Review:
Final Sail is a mystery novel. It's the eleventh book in a series, but you don't need to read the previous novels to understand this one and this novel didn't spoil the previous mysteries.

Helen's case was a clue-based puzzle mystery while Phil's case was mainly a description of his adventures after he'd solved it. The author probably had no idea that another author had already used the idea, but I've read a story where jewels were smuggled in a similar fashion and so I guessed whodunit long before Helen. If I hadn't read that other mystery, I would have been less certain of whodunit though whodunit was among my favored suspects.

There was also an incident in Helen's past involving murder and blackmail that she was trying to deal with from afar. I would have liked Helen and the story more if it hadn't been a part of this story, but I think it was meant to add suspense.

The characters were interesting, sometimes funny, and realistic in how they reacted to events. The suspense was mainly from wondering whodunit and from the PIs trying to investigate undercover without getting caught. The details about the yacht stewardess job were interesting and woven into the story.

There were no graphic sex scenes. There was some explicit bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting mystery.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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