Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Book Tour ~ French Cruises Can Kill You - The Hassle High Mystery Series by Constance Meccarello-Gerson

 



The Hassle High Mystery Series, Book 3

 

Cozy Mystery

Date Published: 11-14-2020


 

Cozy Mystery with Death Romance and twists on a French Cruise with the Hassle High group. Complete with occult, kidnapping and French Recipes.

 

Cast of Characters (on cruise)

 

Maria Bruno Cohen,   Principal, in charge of the group from Hassle High. Married to Al Cohen but has a passion for Detective Hunky Joe Viola.

 

Al Cohen, silver curly haired, tall, retired Teacher married to Maria.  He is a fish collector and  dislikes Joe Viola.

 

Detective Juliet Smith,  A beautiful Amazon and Joe’s partner. She is so beautiful she doesn’t need to hold up a hand to stop traffic.

 

Detective Joe Viola,  He is hunky and dark Italian looking. 30 plus years ago, Viola and Maria were police partners. They were engaged to be married. Joe dumped Maria  at the altar and married someone else named Brenda. He divorced her a year later. He now thinks he is in love with Maria and has asked her to marry him and divorce Al.

 

The Faculty (on cruise)

 

Fred Kelley, warlock and Science Chair. He was involved in the Summertime Murders at Hassle High.   He practices witchcraft.  He believes to teaching students how witchcraft relates to science. Well known on TV talk shows. Very charismatic.

 

Megan Murphy,  Math Chair she is a nice woman, but not too swift. Was  she really a Fulbright scholar? She has been to South Africa before.

 

The New Faculty (on cruise)

 

Tim Leary, Social Studies chair, an aging young hippie who knows his history.  A Georgetown graduate. But there are no records of him down at the Board of Education, so who is he really?

 

Vanna Hayes, science teacher ,  she is black and looks like an Egyptian Queen. Knows the Naidoo family.

 

Ben Franklin, Japanese exchange Math teacher. Very quiet and very intelligent. He spent a year in  South Africa.

 

Desiree Cavalier, French teacher, born in Normandy, very pretty.

 

 

The French Police ( on and off cruise)

 

Detective Marcelle, Tall and good looking and smart with excellent English

 

Detective Jonas, a nice detective.

 

Detective Krause, a French sidekick of Detective Marcelle, he knows more English then it seems.

 

Sergeant Treetoe, a French policeman.

 

 

The Crew

 

Captain Brin, a French Cruise Captain. He is not happy about the murder  on board his orderly ship.

 

First Officer Welt, he wants to help solve the crime.

 

The Captain’s cat, who keeps her own secrets

 

The Fellow Passengers

 

Beth and Todd Princeton are from New Jersey in their early fifties. They dislike the students on board the ship. They both wear the same colors every day. They don’t drink, so what are they doing on an eating and drinking cruise?  Something isn’t right with these two….

 

Richard and Roxanna Jones both from Florida they are retired and play golf. They seem pleasant enough, but they knew the Naidoo family from the Diamond District in New York City.

 

Ed and Maureen Stickley and Nancy and Stewart Riley are neighbors who travel together. They are from Poughkeepsie New York, where Maria, the Principal has relatives. They are in their sixties.

 

Drs. Beth and Howard Getty met in South Africa and are married. They are in their twenties. They are black surgeons. They work for Doctors without Borders. 

 

Laura and Vincent Connelly owners of a diamond mine, they live in South Africa. They look very waspy and are in their forties. Laura seems to know a lot about African masks. Why are they on this cruise and not their private boat?

 

Blick, an accountant from London who is not what he seems to be. He is traveling alone, because his wife refused to join him.

 

Peter and Wanda Naidoo the parents of Brady

 

Chad Naidoo, Brady’s brother

 

 

The Students   (Nut Squad)

 

The Nut Squad is the name of a group of artistic students from Hassle High.  They are not scholars. They won this trip to Monte Carlo by presenting Hamlet the Musical. They wrote the play and preformed it. Because it was seen by the President of Tomato Cruises and they were asked on this cruise to perform a show on board. The show is Tartuffe the Musical , their second creation. They have helped Maria and Joe solve murders before. The Squad is made up of Martha, Brady, Tim, Jeff, Rebecca and Laura.

 

 

Jeff is the leader of the group. He really likes Maria.

 

Brady Naidoo, a student with little to say. He is from South Africa

 

Tim, a student well known for his sleight of hand. He is Spanish.

 

Maria , smart  Spanish student who should have graduated a few years ago.

 

Rebecca, very good at sports and driving.

 

Laura, good at math bad at English skills.

 

A few characters are the nameless crew members.

 

 

About the Author

Constance Meccarello-Gerson was born in Poughkeepsie N.Y.  She is a graduate of Florida Southern College with a BA in Acting. She also attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. HB Studio, Actors Studio, in NYC.  She is a member of SAG, Alpha Gamma Delta, Alpha Si Omega. Her MFA in Acting is from Brooklyn College.  She has appeared on TV, film, and on stage in NYC. For 20 years she taught as a mentor and teacher of English and Theatre arts for the New York City Department of Education and for the University at Santa Cruz. She also taught for ten years as a Speech Coordinator at Touro College. She was an executive at Bloomingdales. Her writing as appeared in Musings, also in the Best American Poets series.  Murder at Hassle High is her first  cozy mystery. Summertime Murder at Hassle High is her second and  French Cruises Can Kill You  is the third.  She wrote Armera a sci fi mystery and her Snowball the Sherlock Rabbit series, a group of children books.  Currently she lives in NYC with her husband Alain, a parrot named Benji, and lots of fish. She is currently writing Death In a Dorm, another cozy in the Hassle High series.


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