From Publishers Weekly
In her second appearance (after Audition for Murder) as an amateur sleuth, wisecracking Chicago actress Morgan Taylor grabs center stage and never lets go in this frothy, high seas murder mystery. When Morgan accepts a last-minute invitation to replace a performer on a Caribbean cruise ship, she believes that her predecessor, Angela Parker, accidentally fell to her death. Once aboard, however, she learns that Angela's shipmates suspect murder. On day two of the cruise, while swimming off Nassau in the Bahamas, Morgan discovers the body of her nasty roommate, Jackie, weighted down in a duffel bag under water. (A lucky find, that.) Jackie, who had expensive tastes in men, had clearly been up to no good, but what does her murder have to do with Angela's death? When someone trashes Morgan's cabin, spray-painting obscenities on the walls, the pun-loving actress takes the vandalism in stride. Vicious killer on the loose or not, the show must go on, with Morgan gamely serving as the lady who gets sawed in half by the ship's magician. The solution to the two murders that the authors conjure up hardly registers, since their heroine's overwhelming personality has upstaged even the plot long before the end. A subplot involving Morgan's Uncle Leo, who turns up on the cruise accompanied not by his wife, Bertha, but by a gorgeous blonde, presumably will be resolved another time Morgan hits the boards. Agents, Jane Jordan Browne and Annette Green. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-Tempted to escape the Chicago winter, actress Morgan Taylor impulsively accepts a last-minute offer to replace another entertainer on a Caribbean cruise ship. She soon learns that her predecessor died under suspicious circumstances, and that there is something very odd about her roommate. Murder threats and red herrings soon plague the ship's staff. The protagonist is a seasoned trouper who quickly adapts to the professional challenges of shipboard entertaining as she competently fills any required role, from star singer to magician's assistant. Her personal issues are a little knottier but she handles these, too, with the aplomb of a Nora Charles-though she is a bit shaken by violence, particularly when it is aimed at her. The first-person narration, lively and contemporary, quickly draws readers into the mind and world of the funny, feisty protagonist. Some unlikely plot devices and a rather complicated solution won't detract from most readers' enjoyment of this light and finely rendered diversion, and teens will probably come hurrying back for the first Morgan Taylor adventure, Audition for Murder (St. Martin's, 1999). Fans of mysteries by Marian Babson, Lise McClendon, and Janet Evanovich should be pleased with this new series.-Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
