Crime on board Condor ferry Commodore Clipper

Crime on board Condor ferry Commodore Clipper - of the fictional kind

Frida Mayıs 17, 2022

I had great fun on board the Condor Ferry, Commodore Clipper, while it was at Portsmouth International Port recently on a photo shoot to launch the new Andy Horton crime novel, Lethal Waves. The Commodore Clipper features in Lethal Waves the thirteenth in the series starring my flawed, hunky and rugged detective, Andy Horton.

It was a calm and rather grey Sunday but it was brightened by meeting the lovely Captain Steve Leake and his crew, including Hotel Services Operations Manager, Mike Mustill, who allowed me, my husband, Bob, and the photographer, Nick Masson, free reign, escorted and ably assisted by the delightful Cabin Manager, Geoff.

Engrossed in a gripping crime novel on board ship

Lethal Waves a dark and deadly mystery

It was my second visit to the Commodore Clipper as I had been allowed an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour in October 2015 while I was researching for Lethal Waves when the Condor team assisted me.

I'm not giving up this crime novel for anyone - well alright then! Lethal Waves, an Andy Horton mystery

The Commodore Clipper ferry is very much an integral part of Portsmouth and the Solent, the setting for my DI Andy Horton crime novels, that I just knew I had to feature it at some stage. Lethal Waves begins with the body of a woman in her locked cabin on board the Condor Ferry. I love watching it sail out of Portsmouth and always feel a buzz when it glides through the narrow harbour entrance. I thought a body on board would be perfect and Condor kindly permitted me to place my fictitious one there. It has all the appearances of natural causes or suicide but is it....?

Captain Leake and Pauline Rowson - this looks like good crime novel - Lethal Waves an Inspector Andy Horton mystery

All my crime novels are set against the backdrop of the sea and I particularly love that self-contained feel of island settings. Andy Horton’s patch is Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, both islands, but I fell in love with Guernsey when I visited it on holiday and decided that Andy Horton’s past and the mysterious disappearance of his mother over thirty years ago should have a Guernsey connection, hence his trip to Guernsey and him being there when the body on the ferry is discovered.

At the helm- Make it so!

In this picture Captain Steve Leake and myself look a little more serious. Captain Leake loaned me his seat at the helm. I did my Star Trek, Captain Jean-Luc Picard impression, "Make it So" except no one obeyed! Maybe it was just as well. I might have hit the big Naval warship in dock and certainly the tiny sailing boats crossing the harbour! Andy Horton would have had a very different investigation on his hands then.

Lethal Waves is published by Severn House in hardcover and is available now from all good booksellers and on line.

My huge thanks to Condor. Check out their website for some great trips across to the lovely Channel Islands. I'm sure Andy Horton will be back there soon!

My grateful thanks for Condor Ferries and the Captain and crew of the Commodore Clipper, also to photographer, Nick Masson.