
CRUISING in comfort around one of the world’s most exotic and enticing archipelagos is hardly a tough way to audition for an intra-office promotion, but Henley Evans hasn’t been looking forward to this trip. In fact, she’s been dreading it.
After years of going well above and beyond her pay grade in order to demonstrate her loyalty to her employer and her department head, Henley resents being forced into one-on-one competition with the shiny new boy-wonder on the company block.
In the barely 12 months he’s worked alongside Henley, Graeme Crawford Collins has become her professional nemesis. The rivalry started the day Graeme brazenly accepted credit for material Henley had created and their conversation is now so strained as to consist of single-word emails fired back and forth with the velocity of an ice-hockey puck and copied selectively to third parties in a war of strategic one-upmanship.
It’s an unproductive situation, given that Henley and Graeme are communications colleagues on the marketing team of Seaquest Adventures, an expedition cruise line running small-group experiences in places as varied as Costa Rica, Alaska, Panama and Hawaii.
With a coveted seat at the executive table available, Henley and Graeme are vying to become Seaquest’s first director of digital marketing.
Their immediate manager has announced that the role will go to the candidate who produces the most compelling promotional plan based on the line’s Galapagos Islands offering. While sampling the itinerary, Henley and Graeme must out-manoeuvre each other without revealing their animosity publicly.
With her flirtatious younger sister, Walsh, under foot, can Henley salvage a winning presentation from a voyage that’s threatening to drive her career onto the rocks?
Humorous and heart-warming, Shipped is set against the real-life islands, inhabitants and issues of 21st-century Galapagos – a destination showcased to perfection in Hockman’s cleverly crafted debut novel.