Book Review: Grave Passage by William Doonan

This is a review of the Kindle version.

Henry Grave has had an interesting life, having been a POW, ran for Congress in 1972, authored a book in archeology and an International dancing champion in Tango. Now 84 years old, he works for the Association of Cruising Vessel Operators in Washington D.C. and investigates crimes on ships.

The ship under question in one Contessa Voyager, an ultramodern cruise ship. Robert Samson, a retired FBI profiler is a regular on the lecture circuit. Samson was about to reveal the identity of the perpetrator of an unsolved murder at Cape Cod, when he was murdered.

Contessa has 1532 passengers on-board and 640 crewmembers. Henry has a long list of suspects:

• Hugh Arlen, Chief Security Officer
• Captain Egil Erlander, Ship Captain
• Helen Ettinger, 70 years old passenger who takes a keen interest in Henry Grave
• Duarte, a Venezuelan General evading deportment
• Elliott Powell and Doug Baxter, Veterinarians and their wives - Donna and Opal respectively
• Ron Gibson, Cruise director
• Inga Hess, Entertainer
• Shelley Tobin, actress and her husband /lead writer, Jack
• Vasily Orlov, cosmonaut
• Hector, a young security officer

William Doonan, the author

William Doonan has crafted a nice debut for Henry Grave. The mystery element is OK. What impressed me the most was Doonan’s writing style.

Click on the link to buy the book:

Here are the things I liked best about the book:

• Nice description of life on a cruise ship voyage
• Good humor all around, with some particularly funny exchanges
• Grave’s philosophical reflections on life, food etc.
• Good description of cruise ship amenities, eager-to-help crewmembers with name tags & how they get tipped for their services etc.

For all the good points mentioned above, I felt there were a few missteps. There are a couple of racial stereotypes (physical description of Asians and the weak English spoken by a particular Russian character) that stuck out like a sore thumb in what was otherwise a very enjoyable read.

Recommended to fans of the mystery genre.

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Image Sources: Amazon

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Jelly Fish

I visited the Shedd Aquarium recently and here are some pics and videos.

Jelly Fishes come in all sizes - the smallest species can fit into a contact lens and the biggest species (The Lion's Mane) has tentacles that stretch to 100 feet!

A Jelly's body is 95% water. Instead of a brain, it has a nerve net. A jelly's mouth not only accepts food, but also serves as outlet for waste and as a pathway for eggs or sperm.

Many Jellies have tentacles and feeding arms that are linked with stinging cells. When they come in contact with the prey, these cells shoot out like tiny harpoons to sting or kill.

One Jelly Fish can lay thousands of eggs each day. This type of mass production often leads to lots of jellies at one time.

Jellies can live even in dead zones, where most animals cannot. Dead zones are polluted, oxygen-starved areas in the ocean. In these zones, the jellies can grow and reproduce unchecked as they are safe from predators.

Further more, jellies do not need to eat much to live. Some jellies can survive for weeks without feed, while others shrink in size. The scarcity of food has less impact on jellies than on other animals.

Some jellies such as Crystal Jellies make their own light using green flourescent protein (GFP) in their cells. This phenomenon is called bioluminescence. GFP is used commonly in biomedicine today and has led to discoveries about cancer and Alzheimer's disease.

Moon Jelly

Hairy Jelly

The white, curly shapes seen in the bell are the Jelly's reproductive organs.

Upside - Down Jelly

These jellies live only in the shallow, sunlit waters of mangrove forests and lagoons.

Blue blubber Jelly

These jellies range in color from very light blue to navy blue and purple.

Northeast pacific sea nettle

Sea nettles hunt by trailing long tentacles and oral arms covered with stinging cells that paralyze prey.

Purple striped sea nettle

These jellies are found in the Northeast Pacific waters.

Spotted Lagoon Jelly

These Jellies moves their body toward the sunlight, which helps their crop of symbiotic algae to grow.

Japanese Sea Nettle Jelly

Sea Nettle's tentacles can reach up to nearly 10 feet.

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