Eric's Reviews > A Boat for a Goat

While I enjoyed it enough while I was reading it, I had some issues with it.

Let's start with the sub-title, "a Kennedy Reeves Cozy Cocktail Cruise Mystery." Now I realize the definition of "cozy" is rather nebulous, but a book where the characters are repeatedly berated by an over-the-top antagonist for hundreds of pages is not cozy to me — it's likely to set off PTSD from previous bad bosses I've suffered through. The definition of "mystery," however, is not nebulous at all, and this novel didn't feature a mystery until the 2/3 mark, and it wasn't much of a mystery at all, as it was immediately clear who the murderer was (my only hesitation was that it was so obvious I assumed it had to be a red herring). So yeah, my initial complaint is one of meeting expectations, as this book was not what it promised on the cover.

My other issues I actually mentioned in that rant about how it wasn't a cozy mystery. The antagonist was so over-the-top it was beyond belief that anyone could behave that way. It made the highlight of the book the point at which they were finally dispatched with, as one, it was cathartic, and two, I wouldn't have to read about their absurd behavior any longer. And my other issue was again that the murder took place so late in the book, and there was no real investigation of it whatsoever.

Those complaints aside, I did enjoy the characters, and spending time with them on the cruise ship. It was engaging enough that I'm considering reading the next in the series, A Cruise for Sous, hoping that the pacing and antagonist/mystery are handled better.