Well, John Keyse-Walker’s Bert and Mamie Take a Cruise wasn’t at all what I expected. I thought I would be reading a cozy armchair traveler mystery set in 1939. Well, yes and no. There’s much more foreshadowing of World War II than I expected. There are excellent descriptions of Africa in 1939, as seen through the eyes of two tourists from Ohio, but the foreshadowing brought the story up a notch.

Bert and Mamie Mason, from eastern Ohio, are farmers who made money during the Depression, raising greenhouse tomatoes. Now, Bert wants to indulge his yearning for “wild and untamed” Africa, and knows they can afford the trip. Mamie’s a little reluctant to take a sixty-three day cruise, but they book a trip on the SS Columbus, leaving New York City February 4, 1939 and returning April 18. It isn’t Africa that’s so “wild and untamed”. It’s the cruise and murders.

Early on the cruise, Mamie is startled when Bert pulls a gun, and shoots and “kills” the purser who had strangled a stewardess and left her body behind the bandstand. But, Bert was just part of the act that night, and no one died. As the couple alternates telling the story, they get to know the crew and some of the passengers. Sturmbannfuhrer (Major) Heissemeyer made no secret of his affiliation with the Third Reich on this German ship. He never hid his contempt for passengers or the crew, and admitted he was making a list of those who offended Germany. It’s Mamie who sees someone throw Heissenmeyer off the ship late one night as Bert sleeps. And, it’s the captain who turns the case over to Bert who was only a sheriff’s deputy for one year. Because Mamie was a witness, Captain Dane knows Bert will want to find the killer who might know that Mamie saw the murder.

Bert and Mamie Take a Cruise is an odd combination of travelogue and pre-war history. The descriptions of the trip itself are taken directly from the “Round Africa Cruise” brochure from the original Raymond Whitcomb flyer for the 1939 trip. And, readers get to see Africa through the eyes of a couple in their 50s who have never really been anywhere exotic. At the same time, there are some vivid descriptions of Nazism and Nazi treatment of women, descriptions that Mamie has a hard time believing because Americans have not yet seen what’s really happening in Europe. And, Mamie is firmly on the side of isolationism. She’s convinced the U.S. would remain neutral if Europe started “another one of their squabbling wars”.

Keyse-Walker combines history, a travel guide, and a murder mystery with an unlikely part of amateur sleuths. The book won’t be for everyone, but it’s certainly an interesting cruise into the past.

John Keyse-Walker’s website is https://www.johnkeyse-walker.com/

Bert and Mamie Take a Cruise by John Keyse-Walker. Severn House, 2023. ISBN 9781448310159 (hardcover), 224p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a galley to review for a journal.