Stacked Deck

by Alex Lark

Perfect for fans of Richard Osman and sun-soaked crime with bite.

Helen swore she'd never set foot on another cruise ship. Susan booked them on one anyway. Ten days through the Arabian Gulf. A ship full of entertainers. And a magician whose entire career rests on a trick he claims his mentor taught him before drowning forty years ago. But someone onboard knows the truth. When a member of a Frankie Valli tribute act collapses with mysterious symptoms—burning feet, hair loss, violent illness—Helen recognizes what the ship's doctors dismiss as norovirus: thallium poisoning. Straight out of Agatha Christie. Then his cabinmate dies. The ship's medical team won't listen. And Helen and Susan are running out of time to prove this isn't food poisoning—it's murder. Someone is using poison to bury a forty-year-old secret. And unless Helen and Susan can find out who the killer is and how they are delivering the toxin, more people will die before the ship reaches port. The past has caught up with the present. And the final trick is making witnesses disappear.