Charlie Chan's Luxury Cruise

By: Barry Clay, B. Allyn Clayton

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Jason Fairfax, a very junior reporter for the Honolulu Gazette, is sent by his editor on an assignment that requires him to travel on the luxury liner, the Oahu Paradise, in the company of a disreputable detective who promises him the scoop of his reporting lifetime—maybe. While on board, he meets a cross-section of people from movie stars to ensigns, but none more intriguing than the world-famous Honolulu inspector, Charlie Chan, and his very large family, who are vacationing on board.

But all is not what it seems. Was a murder committed on board two years ago, or was it an accident? Is there a smuggling ring using the luxury liner to move opium to the continental United States, or is it a spurious rumor? Is it by chance that a known criminal is among the first-class passengers, or is there a more sinister reason?

Charlie Chan insists he is on vacation and uninterested in wild theories, but events conspire to make this a working vacation for the famous inspector, with Jason Fairfax involved in ways he never could have predicted when he came on board.

This tribute to Earl Derr Bigger’s famous detective and the old movies in which he appeared should not be missed by fans of the affable but perceptive detective from Hawaii.

The AI voice not so much.

The story is good and I enjoyed it. The AI voice is a machine voice that lacks depth and feeling. It was at least easy to understand. My advice to all is if you see artificial voice or something that indicates it is not a human run away from it.

Meet the Chan Family

I enjoyed the multiple storylines and a high-level recap of the events that led to Charlie Chan ending up in Hawaii. Having all 13 of his kids in the story was another plus. Thanks!

Too bad

The virtual voice, unfortunately, spoiled this listen. The misuse of at least one word and the miss pronunciation of several words and the lack of human inflection in the telling of the story spoiled what would otherwise have been an excellent experience. A living human narrator would probably have done a better job.

Entertaining mystery

The author did a very good job of telling the story in the style of the creator of Charlie Chan. The virtual voice narration is good, but not nearly as good as done by skilled narrators. However, it’s better than the narration of some other books on audible. Much better.

Virtual voice

The virtual voice seemed wooden to me. It made changes in volume and pace in the right places. But, lacked any emotion.