CRUISING FOR MURDER
by Susan Sussman with Sarajane Avidon
Why would hoofer/singer Morgan Taylor agree to a grueling few weeks’ work filling in for a missing entertainer on the Island Star as it cruises the Caribbean? Well, Chicago's freezing; her touring company of Rent has just closed; her chum Kathy Bloch, the production director, has promised her lots of free time lolling in a deck chair; and—the most compelling reason of all—Morgan's tiptoeing around a commitment to hunky homicide cop J. Roblings and could use the breathing space. But Kathy forgot to tell her that the gal she's replacing, the talented Angela, was hiding a pregnancy and was probably murdered; that she'd be bunking with Jackie, the bitchy magician's assistant; and that Morgan’s Uncle Leo would be on board without her Aunt Bertha, clinging to a young lovely's well-manicured hand. Snorkeling on the Nassau stopover, Morgan finds Jackie stuffed into a seabag, as dead as Angela. Their cabin is trashed, ominous notes are slid under the door, and Morgan keeps getting lost in the bowels of the liner and bumping into the supply chief and Mr. Garlic Breath. Still, the show must go on. Before Roblings flies in for a soothing cuddle, Morgan will sing, dance, and uncover blackmail, stowaways, and a cleaver-wielding nutcase.
A bouncy, self-deprecating heroine holds the plot together with wisecracks. Not quite up to Stephanie Plum's high jinks but still, like Audition for Murder (1999), very cute.