Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo's stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are...

"The tranquility of a luxury cruise along the Nile was shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway had been shot through the head. She was young, stylish, and beautiful. A girl who had everything . . . until she lost her life. Hercule Poirot recalled an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: "I'd like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger." Yet under the searing heat of the Egyptian sun, nothing is ever quite...

Jessica's much-deserved cruise becomes a working vacation when her friend Kathy tags along, hoping to locate her sister Wilimena, who vanished from the same vessel. Distantly related to Alaska's most famous madam-a woman who may have struck it rich during the Gold Rush-Wilimena apparently took the cruise to find the treasure. Now, as Jessica and Kathy investigate Wilimena's disappearance, they learn that she was quite outspoken about her gold claim-and...