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Looking At The Night Sky
Moonlight Cruise: Murder and Magic follows a woman and her miracle-born daughter who are on the run from a Satanic cult that believes her daughter will grant them divine powers through a blood sacrifice. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Actually Moonlight Cruise is a sequel to my previous book Moonlight Rocks which describes how the miracle-born daughter came to be through her mother’s interaction with a meteorite sent to Earth by God the creator. Meteors and meteorites have long been thought to be messengers from the divine and they feature in many different religions. Anyway, my inspiration came from looking at the night sky (I studied astronomy in college and spent many long dark nights watching the heavens) and seeing a bright meteor streak across that sky. Seeing that bright flash of light triggered a lot of my other obsessions with spirituality and various religions all of which inspired me to write the story.
What are some things that you find interesting about the human condition that you think make for great fiction?
Humans need more than just cold, hard objective reality. Regardless of how strong people think they are, I think that everyone experiences times in their life where they feel the need to pray or to otherwise reach out (sometimes just through a curse) to a divine power for help or for resolution of some situation. What’s happening when they reach that breaking point, who they pray to and what they pray for are key story points.
I felt that Moonlight Cruise delivers the drama so well that it flirts with the grimdark genre. Was it your intention to give the story a darker tone?
The story of good versus evil always carries a darker element so truthfully I had to remain vigilant with my writing to keep things from getting too dark. That is why editing is so important – I let everything flow out, then go back and try to weed out the darkest, scary parts thus saving the more sensitive readers from an excess of horror.
I hope the series continues in other books. If so, where will the story take readers?
Since the Ocean Star sails around the world, the next book in the series takes place in Asia where the story continues with the characters we love while introducing some new friends from my Games series too.
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On the tranquil waters of a luxury cruise ship, Jessica Ascher and her miracle-born daughter Zamzam try to outrun the darkness. But a Satanic cult—rooted in the Mojave Desert and connected to the highest levels of power—is hunting them. They’ve already murdered countless women named Jessica and boys named David, seeking the child foretold to challenge evil itself.
This time, they think they’ve found her.
From blood-soaked biker rituals to high-tech surveillance and chilling political conspiracies, Moonlight Cruise is a pulse-pounding fusion of mystery, horror, and spiritual warfare. As mother and child sail unknowingly into danger, a final confrontation looms—one that pits divine innocence against demonic power.
Will the forces of darkness succeed in snuffing out a miracle? Or will faith, love, and the power of an extraordinary child rewrite destiny itself?
If you loved The Omen, The Da Vinci Code, or Carrie, then Moonlight Cruise is your next must-read.
Moonlight Cruise: Murder and Magic
Moonlight Cruise is a dark and twisting thriller that takes the reader from the dusty desolation of the Mojave Desert to the serene yet deceptive beauty of a cruise ship gliding through the Panama Canal. The story follows Jessica Ascher, a woman on the run from the demons of her past, both human and supernatural. Her journey is woven into a larger tale of fanaticism, greed, and the eternal struggle between good and evil. As Jessica tries to protect her daughter, Zamzam, from a cult seeking divine power through blood and sacrifice, the book paints a vivid, unsettling picture of how madness can hide behind devotion and how faith can both save and destroy.
Reading this book was like stepping into a fever dream. The writing grabbed me right away. It’s gritty, raw, and full of heat. Yurie Kiri doesn’t shy away from horror, but the violence never feels random. It’s purposeful, meant to unsettle and make you think about the darker parts of human nature. I found myself both fascinated and disturbed, flipping the pages faster than I meant to. The story moves like a storm, quiet at first, then violent, full of lightning flashes of insight. Sometimes the dialogue feels rough around the edges, almost too real, but that rawness adds to the tension. It’s messy in the best way, like life when it’s at its worst and most honest.
What really got me was the emotion beneath all the chaos. Jessica’s fierce love for her daughter feels like the heartbeat of the story. It’s what keeps you rooting for her when everything else starts to rot. There’s also a haunting sense of mystery, of forces too big to understand. Kiri blends crime, horror, and spirituality into something that feels unique, almost mythic. I did find myself tripping over the sheer number of characters and subplots at times, but I think that’s part of the experience. It’s a labyrinth of sin and faith, and you’re supposed to get a little lost.
I’d recommend Moonlight Cruise to readers who like their thrillers dark and their mysteries layered with moral questions. It’s not a light read, not something to skim before bed, but it sticks with you long after the last page. If you enjoy stories that make you question what’s real, what’s holy, and what’s just human madness, this book will pull you in and keep you there until the end.
Pages: 396 | ASIN : B0DYJZW6SS
LITERARY TITAN 