Final Sail: A Dead-End Job Mystery

In Viets’s enjoyable 11th Dead-End Job mystery (after 2011’s Pumped for Murder), Helen Hawthorne of Coronado Investigations in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., poses as spiritual adviser to a client’s dying elderly father, whose buxom new bride is suspected of instigating her geriatric honey’s demise. Helen then takes to the high seas as a yacht “stewardess” in order to search for a smuggler, leaving husband Phil Sagemont to prove that the wealthy intestate’s death wasn’t natural. The disappearance of Helen’s shipboard roommate and fellow stew, Louise, means more work for everyone. When another crew member claims to have witnessed Louise jumping ship to hitch a ride back to the States, Helen has to wonder if Louise left voluntarily, why’d she leave the cash and meds Helen uncovered in the cabin they shared? Viets presents an eye-opening exposé of spoiled yachters and the not-so-glamorous lives of their crews in this action-filled cozy. Agent: David Hendin, DH Literary. (May)