CSCI Cruise Ship Crime Investigators

With Commander Kieron Phillips very much looking forward to holidaying on the ocean waves and the chance to catch up with his daughter, a dancer onboard the cruise ship he’s just embarked, Stuart St Paul sets the scene for his action-packed thriller, Cruise Ship Heist. Realizing all too quickly that there was nothing coincidental about him being on board this specific voyage, Commander Phillips brings into play the full arsenal of his military background, in order to return the MV Lady Diana to holiday mode.

A murder happens on a ship, two days out of Panama and in the middle of the Pacific. The cruise operators decide not to turn the ship around as it goes out of helicopter range and into the Pacific Ocean, but to consult Hunter Witowski and Kieron Philips. They have just started their Miami-based cruise crime investigation unit after successfully overturning a drug cartel's attempt to use a ship—at least, that is how it looked in the press. Another two guests are killed, and the decision is made: They have to fly out and drop into the ocean.

Following a severe injury, Commander Kieron Philips is called back from his recuperation in Bequia, which could so easily have slipped into a second retirement. The problem with the three King Ships in the Mediterranean is simple, and one ideal for Kieron to reboot on.

Art is being systematically stolen from the collection on the most luxurious cruise ship at sea. The collective value is way beyond the sum people kill for. CSCI is approached to work invisibly because unlike INTERPOL or any other international crime unit, art police, valuers, insurance investigators, or experts, they are unknown to the thieves. They must remain unseen or the crime will stop, the thieves will vanish and the art lost for good.