I'm pleased to allow Sharon Marchiselloto take over Cozy Up With Kathy today. Sharon writes the Giovanna Rogers Mystery series. Murder at Leisure Dreams: Galapagos is the second book in the series and was released earlier this year. Be sure to come back to the blog tomorrow to read my review of the first book in the series, Secrets of the Galapagos.
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Writing a Mystery Set in the Galapagos
by Sharon Marchisello
I love to travel, so working for 27 years in the airline industry was a good career match. Flying free or for a reduced fare allowed me to see much more of the world than I otherwise would have. Over the years, my husband and I have visited over 110 countries and taken 75 cruises.
Because I’m an animal lover, some of my favorite destinations allow visitors to see wild animals in their natural habitat. The Galapagos were high on my bucket list. In 2014, I fulfilled that dream when my husband and I took a cruise around the islands.
Located 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador, the Galapagos archipelago is 97% national park; humans inhabit only four of its 21 volcanic islands. Straddling the equator, the UNESCO site is situated at a point in the Pacific Ocean where three ocean currents collide, which contributes to the diversity of wildlife found nowhere else. Because they’re so isolated, most of the animals have no natural fear of people.
Getting to the Galapagos isn’t easy or cheap, so I figured our cruise clientele would be mostly older. However, there were couples younger than we were, and families with children. If you’re thinking about traveling there, go while you’re fit and healthy. Even on a luxury cruise, the daily itinerary was strenuous. To enjoy the experience, we engaged in lots of physical activity: hiking, snorkeling, kayaking. Not much time to lie on the beach reading a good book.
None of the islands have proper piers. The cruise ship anchors off shore, and to disembark, passengers descend a steep metal staircase, transfer to an inflatable boat called a Zodiac, and motor to shore. (This includes embarkation and departure.) On some islands, you’ll do a dry landing; i.e., disembark from the Zodiac to a rustic pier or stone steps. Others require a wet landing, where the Zodiac drives up onto the beach and passengers wade the rest of the way. Not exactly ADA-compliant.
If I’d known I would set a book in the Galapagos, I’d have deducted the trip expenses from my income taxes. But I didn’t start my adventure/mystery, Secrets of the Galapagos, until six months later—after I’d already filed my 2014 tax return. And the book wasn’t published until 2019. But I decided if I ever planned a sequel, I’d return to the islands and write off the trip.
I had such fun writing Secrets of the Galapagos, going through my photos, perusing the daily programs from the cruise ship, poring over maps of the islands. It was like reliving my vacation. I also did supplemental research online to clarify what I’d learned from the extremely knowledgeable guides (and to jog my faulty memory). Most of the plot takes place on board a cruise ship, modeled after the one I sailed on. I added stops at many of the islands we visited, so I had plenty of opportunity to describe the diverse, natural setting and weave encounters with the flora and fauna into the story.
After reaching the end, I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to my characters. In Secrets of the Galapagos, Giovanna Rogers, the protagonist, goes on a cruise around the Galapagos Islands with her grandmother, Michelle DePalma. When there’s a mysterious death on board the ship, Giovanna becomes a person of interest, which is how she meets local police detective Victor Zuniga, who investigates the case. Giovanna and Michelle also meet fellow American passenger Jim Roberts, CEO of Leisure Dreams, an international luxury hotel chain. Jim is cruising with his family, but his main objective for the trip is to check on the construction of a new property just outside Puerto Ayora, on Santa Cruz Island.
In the sequel, Murder at Leisure Dreams – Galapagos, Jim has offered Giovanna a job managing the new hotel, so she stays in Puerto Ayora and begins a romantic relationship with Victor. I was all set to return to the Galapagos, book a stay in a Santa Cruz hotel, and soak up the local color while plotting my story.
Then we had a global pandemic. No trip to the Galapagos. No trips anywhere for almost three years.
I had lots of time to write, though. Lots of time to surf the web and attend Zoom webinars. But instead of researching on location, I had to rely on memories and secondhand information to create an authentic setting.
One of the challenges of writing this sequel was that most of the action takes place inside a hotel. It could be anywhere. I struggled to infuse the same atmospheric details, the same “setting as character,” that I did with Secrets of the Galapagos, but the first drafts seemed bland.
The way I solved this problem was by finding ways to get my characters outdoors. I added Harvey, a sea lion who keeps trying to swim in the resort’s pool. I take some of the characters to the Charles Darwin Research Station to see giant tortoises. There’s an early scene where Giovanna gives the victim’s film crew a tour of the grounds, and a local reporter tags along. They head down to the pier and marvel at a sea turtle swimming through the water; suddenly, the reporter falls into the bay (or was pushed). I have another scene where Giovanna accompanies a group of guests on an excursion to North Seymour Island, courtesy of the Galapagos tourist board after the hotel’s grand opening. One of the suspects twists an ankle, so, while the others do the hike with the guide, Giovanna stays behind with her crippled guest—and gathers important information for the case.
My editor asked me if I intend to continue this series. I’d like to. And I’m going back to the Galapagos for the next book.
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Murder at Leisure Dreams: Galapagos (Giovanna Rogers Mysteries) by Sharon Marchisello
About Murder at Leisure Dreams: Galapagos
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Mystery 2nd in Series Setting - Galapagos
Publisher: Milford House Press
Publication Date: June 26, 2025
Print length: 340 pages
Giovanna Rogers restarts her career as expatriate manager of the new Leisure Dreams resort hotel on Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos. Due to her youth and limited proficiency in Spanish, she struggles to gain the respect of her staff and the company’s executives. She has to prove to them that she got the job because of merit, not because the CEO is a family friend. And prove to herself that she can overcome a past business failure and make the hotel a success.
When the story opens, Giovanna and her staff prepare for the hotel's grand opening. Friends, family, and corporate bigwigs fly in for the event. Renowned documentary producer Claire Costello and her film crew have arrived; Giovanna has the staff send a bottle of champagne to Claire's room to welcome the VIP guest. The next morning, Claire is found dead in her bed; the cause of death is apparent poisoning. Now Giovanna must work with her boyfriend, local police detective Victor Zuniga, to solve the case while juggling the details of the grand opening and controlling the narrative around the mysterious demise of a VIP guest on the property.
Complications in her relationship arise when Giovanna’s ex-boyfriend decides to join her family to attend the grand opening. Her best friend and several of her employees have a history with Claire. And Claire’s team is somewhat dysfunctional, keeping secrets and telling contradictory stories. Despite Giovanna’s efforts to maintain normalcy and apprehend the culprit, things continue to worsen.
About Sharon Marchisello
SHARON MARCHISELLO is the author of two other mysteries published by Milford House, the fiction imprint of Sunbury Press: Going Home (2014) and Secrets of the Galapagos (2019), which is the prequel to Murder at Leisure Dreams – Galapagos. She also writes the DeeLo Myer Cat Rescue Mysteries from Level Best Books. Besides novels, Sharon has published short stories in anthologies and online magazines; one was a 2022 Derringer finalist. She has written travel articles, training manuals, screenplays, book reviews, and a nonfiction book (Live Well, Grow Wealth - 2018). She earned a Bachelor’s degree in French from the University of Houston and a Master’s in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California. She is an active member of Sisters in Crime, the Atlanta Writers Club, and the Hometown Novel Writers Association. Retired after 27 years with Delta Air Lines, Sharon now lives in Peachtree City, Georgia. She serves on the boards of the Fayette Humane Society, Hometown Novel Writers Association, and the Friends of the Peachtree City Library. She loves to travel, including a trip to the Galapagos Islands in 2014.
Author Links:
Website: https://smarchisello.wordpress.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SLMarchisello
Twitter/X https://twitter.com/slmarchisello
GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4297807.Sharon_Marchisello
Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharonmarchisello
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/slmarchisello/
BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/profile/sharon-marchisello
Purchase link: Sunbury Press - Amazon
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