Book Review: “Lady Justice and the Cruise Ship Murders”

Robert Thornhill at Soapy's grave

hat if Soapy Smith hid the poke of gold his men stole from Klondike miner, John Douglas Stewart? What if it was never recovered after Soapy was killed and no one but one poet gang member knew where it was hidden? What if a modern day researcher figured out where the gold was hidden and wanted to see that Stewart's descendants were the ones to uncover it? Stewart's approximately 159 ounces of gold would be worth about $221,437.71 today, which is enough for many unscrupulous humans to consider robbing and even murder to obtain that gold.
      Lady Justice and the Cruise Ship Murders by Robert Thornhill is Episode #11 of the Lady Justice series, an ongoing collection of comedy/mystery stories spawned in the creative mind of the author.
      There you have the fast-paced, nail-biting, action-packed mystery that will interest Soapy Smith fans and "have you on the edge of your seat one minute and laughing out loud the next." An easy read, with interweaving story lines that do not confuse the reader or interrupt the story. Mystery, comedy, Alaskan history and explanatory photographs.

Book cover

      A couple, Ox and Judy, are on a honeymoon cruise with tag-along friends, Walt and Maggie, when two other passengers are murdered. The murders are linked to a the secret meeting between John Stewart's descendants and an author who believes he knows where the gold is hidden. The Stewarts' were the intended murder victims but a change of their room aboard the ship saved their lives. Once the crooks realized they murdered the wrong couple the race was on to murder the right couple before they reached Skagway, Alaska and the gold. The Stewarts' with the help of their new found friends, who thankfully are peace officers, spend the rest of the cruise eluding the modern day thieves intent on possessing the gold at any cost.
      I own a signed copy that now resides proudly along with Soapy Smith collection of books.

Lady Justice and the Cruise Ship Murders
http://booksbybob.com/
Paperback
Number of pages: 240
Publish date: October 18, 2012
Publisher: Createspace
ISBN: 1480130559 (ISBN13: 9781480130555)

 

"Thou shall not kill…without a good alibi."

— Keith C. Cobb, Exceptions to the Rules.

MAY 26

1647: A law bans Catholic priests from the colony of Massachusetts.

1736: The British and Chickasaw Indians defeat the French at the Battle of Ackia.

1835: A resolution is passed in Congress stating that they have no authority over state slavery laws.

1836: The House of Representatives adopt what has been called the “gag rule.”

1853: Famed gunman John Wesley Hardin is born in Bonham, Texas.

1863: Miners led by Bill Fairweather discover gold in Alder Gulch, Idaho Territory, later renamed Virginia City.

1864: Montana Territory is created from a part of Idaho Territory.

1865: Arrangements are made in New Orleans for the surrender of Confederate forces west of the Mississippi.

1868: President Andrew Johnson is acquitted, by one vote, of all charges in his impeachment trial.

1874: While celebrating his 21st birthday, John Wesley Hardin shoots and kills Comanche County Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb in Comanche, Texas. Inside a saloon Webb aimed his gun at Hardin but Bud Dixon, shouted a warning to Hardin who turned about and fired his own gun. Webb wounded Hardin in the side, before receiving a bullet to the head.

1883: Soapy purchases a street vendors license in Nebraska City, Nebraska to sell his prize package soap.

1888: Recently discharged doorman of the U.S. House of Representatives and the man who shot John Wilkes Booth, Boston Corbett, escapes from the insane asylum in Topeka, Kansas, where he has resided for the last 15 months.

1893: Bill Doolin and his outlaw gang rob a train near Cimarron, Kansas.

1896: The Dow Jones Industrial Average appears for the first time in the Wall Street Journal.

1900: Harvey Logan, and Will Carver, of the outlaw Wild Bunch gang, ambush and kill Sheriff Jesse Tyler and cattleman Sam Jenkins 40 miles from Thompson Springs, Utah.