The Glass Bottom Hoax: A Madison Night Mystery

Dallas interior decorator Madison Night exploits her remarkable resemblance to Doris Day in her frothy latest adventure (after Please Don’t Push Up the Daisies). Donna Nast, owner of Big Bro Security, has been hired by Texas Luxury Cruises to stop a spate of burglaries aboard their ships. Donna, however, isn’t sure that the cruise company is operating aboveboard, and hires Madison to help vet her suspicions. Madison and her boyfriend, police captain Tex Allen, are to board the next cruise, with Madison posing as a professional Doris Day impersonator and Tex as her manager, to see if they can dig up any dirt. The couple happily accepts the assignment, but soon after the New Nautilus has set sail from Galveston, purser Homer Manalo, the one crew number who knows why Madison is onboard, is stabbed to death. Once again, Madison is forced to draw on her sharp observational skills, both to ferret out Homer’s killer and to determine if the New Nautilus is home to a crime ring. The plot beats are familiar, but Vallere hits her marks, delivering a clever, fairly clued solution. This gets the job done. (Self-published)