Murder on Naked Beach

Lucy Ripken Mysteries #1

by J.J. Henderson

30-something, single, and struggling to make it as a photographer in New York City, she's smart, tough, and fiercely protective of her friends and her privacy. Lucy wants to meet the right guy, but she's got to be free for a life of travel and adventure, and she finds both in Murder on Naked Beach, the first novel of this sizzling new mystery series.

It's the ugly side of winter in Manhattan and Lucy is itching to escape to a warmer climate. She manages to talk her way onto a press junket to Jamaica to photograph a posh new resort. Once her photo shoot is done, she'll have plenty of time left for windsurfing and catching up with her traveling companions. Instead, Lucy finds one of them dead in the hot tub on the resort's little island, known as Naked Beach. Although everyone claims the writer died of a heart attack, Lucy smells mischief and is determined to find out what really happened. But her curiosity leads her way off Jamaica's beaten tourist path, and straight into danger, drug smuggling, and the bed of an undercover DEA agent.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery

274 pages, Paperback

First published February 7, 2006

Reviews

[Cassidy Stoneburner]

Read this book on vacation and it was a good vacation beach book. I felt that the murder mystery concept kind of got lost? And there were so many different plot lines it was difficult to keep up with that times and remembering all of the characters.

[Grey853]

Lucy is a not very successful photojournalist who's on a free tour of a tropical resort opening. She's hoping to land a free lance spot in a magazine. Unfortunately, the book is populated with unpleasant characters, not just the victim who just happens to be one of the worst. The narrative is rather choppy and hard to follow.

I like my mysteries to be fun and this one wasn't.

[Deborah]

Murder or naked beach a Lucy Ripken mystery

It took me awhile to finish the book. The story was interesting and in some parts boring. I felt the story had the potential but it lacked excitement, suspense and action. I don't know if this is a part of a series. If so the author has some work to do to make the series more enticing.

[Tobin]

I really didn't finish this book. I got 2/3 of the way through and realized I was just chugging along hoping it would end. The characters weren't very interesting and the writing style just wasn't for me.

[Ellen Moore]

This book was not a favorite of mine. The characters were not appealing to me, and I didn't enjoy all the drugs and drinking. The murder mystery was not that interesting either. I will not look for future books by this author.

[Linda Cole]

Interesting

I really enjoyed the beginning of this story. It had an exotic location, an independent heroine but somewhere in the middle it became confusing. The ending was good and I did like the characters.

[Natalie]

This was a fun beach read. Nothing too deep or spectacular, but I wasn't expecting a nobel prize winner and the book was exactly what I wanted at the moment. I would read the author again.