Hollywood has come and gone for Jim and Penny, the TV movie about the Classmate Murders has been filmed and shown on TV and their lives are back to normal now. A woman comes into Jim's office one day from a mystery writers organization requesting Jim to join them on a luxury cruise of the Pacific Ocean to give a speech about his book, movie and his adventures being a P.I. but once Jim and Penny have sailed port the fun begins. It seems mystery writers are a murderous bunch of people and someone doesn't like a few of the writers and a book agent, so people are turning up dead. The Captain of the liner decides to enlist Jim in the hunt for the killer before the cruise goes south. Jim and Penny are joined by Buck and Maria as they try to solve the crime and give the mystery writers something to write about in this ninth book of the Jim Richards murder novels.