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July 31, 2005 So a newlywed couple gets on a cruise ship. The husband disappears. There is blood on the railing and on the awning below the deck where their honeymoon cabin was located. Aha! The game is afoot. What happened? Whodunnit? Was it Colonel Mustard in the Library with a candlestick? http://www.courttv.com/news/2005/0726/cruise_ap.html Interestingly, this isn’t a new scenario. In 1966, John D. MacDonald, one of the premiere mystery writers (as well as author of other great fiction) of all time, wrote “Darker than Amber,” one of his earlier Travis McGee series novels about a well-organized gang of murderers who used lovely women to entice, seduce, and marry men who were later murdered on the cruise ship and whose insurance was then collected and shared. Travis McGee, of course, eventually solved the murders. This was made into a rather horrible movie a few years later, 1970. DARKER THAN AMBER Based on the novel by John D. MacDonald Screenplay by Ed Waters Directed by Robert Clouse Starring Rod Taylor as TRAVIS McGEE and Theodore Bikel as Meyer Also starring Suzy Kendall, Oswaldo Calvo, Jane Russell If you watch the movie instead of reading the novel, you are cheating yourself. But aside from this somewhat eerie similarity between the husband’s disappearance and the novel and the movie, there are other clues in this case. The wife was seen arguing with the husband in the ship’s bar earlier and kneed him in the groin, not something one usually sees a new bride doing to her guy. There was a report of boisterous partying going on between the newlyweds and some guys on the ship. There were sounds of a loud party, an argument, and a loud thud heard by the person staying in the next cabin. Interestingly, this fellow passenger was a former police officer. One wonders why he didn’t investigate more at the time. There were lots and lots of blood stains in the cabin of the newlyweds, on the deck outside, on the railing, and on the awning of the deck below. The bride seemed surprisingly unconcerned and uncooperative and has seemingly disappeared after the ship got back to port, where, strangely, no one was detained and investigation, much as in Aruba, was delayed until all the suspects had departed the ship and gone their random ways. While the partying in the cabin, the argument on deck, and the thudding was all occurring, where was the bride? Just as in the case of Latoyia, I think it wise to hang the boyfriend first and investigate later. And in the case of the vanished husband, cherchez la femme. I think, however, that if these people were copying the Travis McGee plot, they did a rather poor job of it. They need to read the book again. Speaking of Useless Knowledge, how about we all solve crimes here? Seems like a good use for all this brainpower. ------------ About the author Brooks A. Mick: 63-yr-old physician, still practicing medicine but retired from the US Army. Write just for the fun of it, but working on novel in the vein of Tom Clancy's politico-military genre. Email: brooks15@cox.net ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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