Miz Scarlet and the Perplexed Passenger — Sara M. Barton

When innkeeper Scarlet Wilson is asked to accompany her wheelchair-bound mother on a five-night cruise to Bermuda, she expects to have a trip to remember. Boy, will she remember this one Laurel Googins Wilson's new beau, Dr. Thaddeus Van Zandt, and Scarlet's old high school flame, Kenny Tolliver, join the women as they set sail for paradise. While Scarlet loses herself in a good book on the balcony of their stateroom, poor Laurel witnesses the deadly plunge of a fellow passenger into the Atlantic Ocean. "Man overboard " It's the start of a nightmare that may never end. Who would want to kill George Delaney, the respectable funeral director from Caulkins Cove, Maine, on a cruise to Bermuda? While Kenny, an experienced investigator, joins forces with old school chum Marley Hornsby, now the security chief for the cruise line, and the cruise ship's security team, to find the killer hiding in their midst, the amateur sleuth known as Miz Scarlet can't resist diving into this mystery. But this isn't a killer who wants to be found. He's dangerous...he's desperate...and he's plotting to kill again As the ship approaches Bermudian waters, the widow finds herself a suspect in her husband's murder. Did she do it? Miz Scarlet and her cohorts don't think so. But how can they prove that Kathleen Delaney is innocent? Time is quickly running out. As soon as the ship docks at King's Wharf, the FBI plans to take their only suspect into custody. Working late into the night in their frantic search for a murderer, the feisty Miz Scarlet and her dashing, determined heartthrob follow the clues left behind by the dead man, desperate to identify the next victim. One catastrophe after another draws the travel companions deeper into the dastardly intrigue, and the closer they get to the truth, the harder the murderous fiend fights to distract investigators with his razzle dazzle bag of tricks. Suddenly Miz Scarlet finds herself facing the wrath of a devious, dangerous stranger. Can she stay alive long enough to figure out what the killer's end game is?