In A CRUISE TO DIE FOR, Charlotte and Aaron Elkins (husband & wife team) have created a wonderful art world mystery with characters you’ll love (except the bad guys, of course) and a gorgeous super posh setting aboard a mega yacht in the beautiful Aegean Sea that will have you dreaming of your next vacation.

Alix London, the daughter of a famous art forger (who’s paid for his crime with 8 years in prison) and who is an art expert in her own right and can spot a forgery at a single glance, has been asked by the FBI to attend a week-long art auction on the above yacht, owned by Papadakis, a super rich Greek dealer in art.  She is to observe and report on the art as well on the wealthy patrons onboard. That’s all.

But Alix is barely aboard the Artemis before she identifies the first painting she sees – a Manet – as a forgery. Amateur sleuth that she is, she expresses her opinion to the crowd. It’s not long before she is attacked and the painting slashed. Who was responsible?  And why?  As she gets to know and like her fellow cruisers, an astonishing operation is revealed.

The climax is action-packed, with Alix literally in the middle and her life in dire danger. When all the pieces are later sorted, she is astonished at all the evil that’s surfaced, and the unbelieable getting away with crime.

At the very end, back home in New York she receives a job offer that she has to weigh, and an even better surprise that will have readers cheering and maybe weeping for joy. I kid you not!

Nareated by Kate Rudd who does a great job with Alix’s voice as well as with the men in the story.

FIVE stars.