Carolyn Blue is a food writer. For Mother's Day she receives a free gourmet food cruise in the Mediterranean. Her friend Luz Vallejo, a retired police officer, and her mother-in-law accompany her. A rather annoying female passenger disappears, and Carolyn sets out to investigate. There are too many situations that occur in this book that just don't ring true. There are too many inconsistencies. Even Carolyn's "food columns" fall flat. Many of the characters are not well-developed. I doubt that I'll return to this series. ( )

The over the top plot in Bon Bon Voyage has Carolyn Blue up against international terrorists and in the middle of a mutiny aboard a cruise ship. This book strays from the pattern of the past books and is even less believable then the past books…yet still a fun read.

Carolyn Blue has taken a dream job as a food writer. She is getting to go to exotic locals and eat delectable food. She could get used to this, even if she has to share a cabin with her mother-in-law and best friend, retired cop Luz Vallejo. The gormet cruise from Lisbon to Barcelona would be perfect except for the fact that her husband refused to accompany her and someone is murdering the passengers. ( )

I agree with Darla's comments in general. This book tries to be too many things, and really only marginally qualifies as a food-theme mystery. ( )

Have I mentioned how much I don't like mysteries with gimmicks? I should also mention that I don't like books with inconsistent characterization. Why would a woman who's a staunch feminist blame another woman when a man makes a pass at her? And why would that same feminist continually tell this other woman (and not in a sarcastic manner) that she shouldn't do something because her husband wouldn't like it? Gah. Also, it bounced around between 3 different first-person POV characters, as well as sections written in 3rd person from the POVs of the villains. And then there were the sterotypical & cliched accents and two-dimensional stock characters. This wasn't so much a mystery as it was an adventure--we always know whodunit and why and how. The heroine/sleuth is a food writer, taking a free cruise so she can write about the food, and she has her friend (cue stereotypes: hispanic ex-cop) and mother-in-law (the pseudo-feminist) along. The cruise ship gets hijacked, and she saves the day, with the help of various passengers and members of the crew. So why three stars? It did get entertaining, particularly toward the end. ( )