“Voyages of the Queen” by Scott Finley is a historical mystery series set aboard the British luxury liner Queen Victoria between 1929 and 1939. Headstrong nurse Maeve Chandler tackles thrilling mysteries on each Atlantic crossing, uncovering secrets amidst the glamour of ocean travel.
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Voyages of the Queen Series Book One, by Scott Finley
Murder books passage on the British luxury liner Queen Victoria, turning ship’s nurse Maeve Chandler into an amateur sleuth apprenticing under the tutelage of mystery writer Agatha Christie.
A passenger dies in full view of the First-Class dining salon, followed by a millionaire apparently leaping overboard a day before the New York stock market collapses. Add in an abusive husband pushed down an open lift shaft and a crewman left to cook against a boiler in the ship’s engine room, and a killer will walk free when the ship reaches New York unless Maeve and Agatha can unwind the clues – but with 2,935 suspects on board, every revolution of the Queen Victoria’s propellers means time is running out.
Voyages of the Queen Series Book Two, by Scott Finley
Ship’s nurse Maeve Chandler of the luxury liner Queen Victoria is finding out all that dazzles may not be diamonds, as she investigates asparkling shipboard murder alongside up-and-coming diamantaire Harry Winston.
The British luxury liner Queen Victoria is bound from New York to Cherbourg carrying several diamond dealers when one of them, an irascible and miserly old man, is found dead in his First-Class cabin, seated in an armchair with no sign of struggle, his mouth stuffed with diamonds, and the cabin locked from the inside. Traveling with him is his young nephew,who owes an insurmountable amount of cash to an American gangster and has fallen in love with a ship’s nurse. Also along for the voyage is a mysterious gunman hired for protection by the uncle only the day before sailing, as well as the uncle’s former business partner, feeling constant remorse for the deadly incident that led to their 30-year estrangement. Meanwhile, diamonds of every sort seem to becoming and going aboard the Queen Victoria, except the ones Maeve and Harry are searching for – along with a killer not afraid to kill again.
Voyages of the Queen Series Book Three, by Scott Finley
Queen of the Sky, is in production for release in 2024 and has Maeve and Dr Harper answering a distress call at sea from the German Graf Zeppelin airship. Once aboard, Maeve pairs with airship passenger Lady Grace Drummond-Hay, a British journalist who was the first woman to travel around the world by air. They soon find themselves immersed in deadly political intrigue at close quarters with a killer who has little regard for life— or the nearly four million cubic feet of explosive hydrogen gas overhead keeping the zeppelin aloft.
Current and forthcoming books, by Scott Finley
Book One: Shadow of the Queen
In book one in the series, murder books passage on the British luxury liner Queen Victoria, turning ship’s nurse Maeve Chandler into an amateur sleuth apprenticing under the tutelage of mystery writer Agatha Christie.
Book Two: Queen of Diamonds
Book two in the series finds Maeve working with a young Harry Winston to solve the murder of a diamond dealer found locked in his First-Class cabin from the inside, his mouth and throat stuffed with diamonds.
Book Three: Queen of The Sky
Book three sees Maeve and the Queen Victoria’s Principal Medical Officer unwillingly whisked aloft aboard the German Graf Zeppelin after the Queen Victoria answers a mid-ocean distress call.
Book four follows Maeve as she takes the stage with magician Harry Blackstone on board the Queen Victoria to help the preeminent showman polish his new act – until murder steals the show.
Book five finds Maeve teaming with Emmett Dalton, last of the famed Dalton Gang, to solve a decades-old crime from the Wild West as a gunfighter stalks the Queen Victoria.
Book six and beyond – well, the Stoddard Lines, owner of the Queen Victoria, are happy to book your passage now.
Aiding Maeve are Principal Medical Officer Dr Leslie Harper and Chief Steward Mister Harvey.
Scott’s fascination with the golden age of luxury liners began in sixth grade with Walter Lord’s Titanic classic A Night to Remember and continued through a career as a multiple award winning and Lone Star Emmy nominated television news producer..
Scott believes that the devil truly is in the details and strives for as much accuracy as possible (with the occasional artistic license thrown in) for the series, including news and events of the day as well as clothing, popular slang, technology, and other items.
When not writing he enjoys electric trains and restoring radios from the 1930’s through 1950’s.
© 2024 Scott Finley. All rights reserved.