Can there be a better, more romantic setting for a crime story than a ship on the open sea? Step onto any vessel - even an inter-island ferry - and you experience an aura of romance, adventure, and mystery. All the stories contained in Death Cruise are set aboard cruise ships. Written by members of the International Association of Crime Writers, a global fraternity of mystery writers, these compelling stories come from many nations, including England, Belgium, Denmark, Cuba, Brazil, America, Germany, Spain and France. This global line-up includes: "Problem at Sea" by Agatha Christie; "Nine Points for Murder" by Nancy Pickard; "Hodegetria" by Jeremiah Healy; "Under My Skin" by Chris Rippen; "S.O.S." by John Lutz; "Honeymoon Cruise" by Richard Deming; "Rhine Ablaze" by Jacques Toes; "The Merry Ghosts of the Grampus" by Arnaldo Correa; "Lost and Found" by Benjamin Schutz; "The Wind & Mary" by Piet Teigeler; "The Theft of the Bingo Card" by Edward D. Hoch; "Mutiny of the Bounty Hunter" by Ralph Mclnerny; "The Mermaid" by Jacob Vis; "Chess on Board" by Erik Amdrup; "A Cruise to Forget" by Barbara Collins and Max Allan Collins; "Havanightmare" by Jose Latour; "Miscalculation" by Jan Burke; "The Deep Blue Sea" by Ina Bouman; "Rumpole at Sea" by John Mortimer; "The Time of His Life" by Carolyn Wheat Bon Voyage! And be sure to take a good mystery with you

Abbot: "I'm telling you. Who's on first, What's on second, I Don't Know is on third."; Costello: "Well, all I'm trying to find out is what's the guy's name on first base.'; Abbott: "Oh, no, no. What's on second base."; Costello "I'm not asking you who's on second."; Abbott: "Who's on first."; We've all heard the old Abbott and Costello routine, but only master novelist William F. Buckley Jr. could ever have imagined in it the set-up for a gripping spy thriller. It's 1956 and the United States is locked in a do-or-die space race with the Russians. Who will get there first? Once more, it's up to supersecret agent Blackford Oakes to see that the good guys win. His assignment is to kidnap two Russian missile scientists who can help put the Americans in front for good. To succeed, he must dodge a lethal combination of murderous KGB agents and vengeful Hungarian freedom fighters - fresh from the bloody streets of Budapest - who mistake Oakes for their enemy. Who's on First was originally published in hardcover in 1980. Gobbled up by readers who had savoured Buckley's earlier Blackford Oakes thrillers, the novel also attracted plenty of attention from reviewers. "Timeless" - The Boston Globe. "A crackling good plot" - The Washington Post. "Fast-moving.... there is thrust and counterthrust.... Mr. Buckley is an observer with a keen wit and a cold eye" - The New York Times.

Lindsay Chamberlain, who specializes in the forensic analysis of bones, investigates the accidental deaths of three cavers, and discovers something very wrong with the coroner's original verdict, and is plunged into a series of events that may mean her own death

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.Lindsey Chamberlain battles modern-day pirates and a hurricane during a dive for sunken treasure and uncovers a four-hundred-year-old murder mystery.

In 1558 a Spanish galleon headed for the New World with supplies for the Spanish colonies was severely damaged in a storm and sank off the coast of Georgia. Now, inside one of the largest cofferdams ever built for the purpose of archaeology, Lindsay Chamberlain is excavating the site on the ocean floor. The new head of the division of anthropology and archaeology at the University of Georgia, Francisco Lewis, is staking his reputation on the success of the project; and John West, Lindsay's friend, is risking his future and his construction company on the safety of the cofferdam. For Lindsay, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to understand a past history that unfolded at sea, not on land. At least one passenger survived to tell the tale of the ship's voyage and destruction. His diary, written in code in a mix of Latin shorthand and archaic Spanish, reveals details of the voyage and describes his life at sea in the sixteenth century, a treasure of information for the archaeologists now recovering the remains of the ship. The pages tell of sea monsters and of another lost ship-a galleon on its way to Spain loaded with a vast treasure of gold, silver, and precious jewels. The diary also reveals that a murder occurred on the journey. Lindsay discovers the remains of the victim, a skeleton crew of suspects, and the diary-all the clever scholar needs to solve a crime that occurred more than 440 years ago. Anxiety takes its toll on the archaeology crew with the ocean and its pounding waves only two bulkheads away. Modern-day pirates are on the horizon anxious for the archaeologists to find the treasure, and a hurricane is headed their way. Adding to the troubles, one of the bidders for the construction of the cofferdam is found dead along with a beach bum who had found an emerald-encrusted gold cross. As tensions and trouble escalate, Lindsay must solve the murders. Everyone is a suspect. After all, who can resist the temptation of so much gold?