A Wide Berth

A cruise ship is a prison when there's a murderer on board... With a moment's noticed, Casey Jones is asked to cut her holiday short and join the ship Countess Aveline as their entertainment director, Tracy Coleman, as well as with another male passenger, has gone missing. Cut out for the sea, and with a reputation for her investigative skills, Casey knows why they need her. Although the two missing people don't' seem to be connected, someone needs to solve the mystery - or at least shed some light on it. Arriving on board the Countess Aveline, an old, re-fitted ship with history, Casey looks forward to resuming the role of entertainment director. She's good at it, and she knows it. Pierre Arbour has another story for Casey, though. As entertainment director on the Aveline, he soon puts Casey in place, much to her confusion, and much to her annoyance. Soon she is at his beck and call, something that she finds hard to accept. The role of entertainment director was a fast-paced one, and Arbour wasn't moving very fast! Unlike the rest of his team. Casey's professional side kicks in and she sets out to investigate, discreetly, the movements of Tracy Coleman before she disappeared. Starting in Tracy's cabin, she gets a shock. It is wrecked, and the blood in the bathroom says a lot. Tracy had been missing for days, but the cabin was turned upside down recently. Casey knew this wasn't a straightforward case of a missing person. Enlisting the help of her new friends, Casey goes full-swing into the investigation. But someone doesn't like it and that someone is making that fact very clear. Add to the mystery some suspicious deaths and Casey has her hands full - keeping herself safe, meeting Arbour's every demand and trying to find some clues as to what happened to the missing people. When nature decides to add to Casey's woes with a terrible storm, things go from bad to worse. Add to that the pirate's ambush ... could things get any worse for Casey? This wasn't meant to be complicated ... she should have been on holiday instead! Praise for Stella Whitelaw'An absolute treat of a novel ... clever and well-constructed' - BOOKLIST Stella Whitelaw is a British writer and journalist. Her excellence in journalism led to being awarded an MBE in 2001. Her career also includes being Secretary to the Parliamentary Press Gallery at the House of Commons. Her works include both fiction and non-fiction and she has also written several short stories in women's magazines.