Dead on the Rocks: A Sam Russo Mystery

Case 4 in the Sam Russo mystery series finds Sam “out to sea” in more ways than one. He’s been dragged along by his rich, flamboyant and interesting “friend,” Mrs. Willingford, forced to sail on her husband’s yacht. Along for a ride he doesn’t want to go on is his friend and neighbor, the girl in the next room, Holly. And Jane, his “Egyptian” dog. Once again, Sam puts down the book he’s reading, walks away from his local Staten Island movie palace where he’s missing the latest 1950 movies, to find himself in a watery hell. Sam hates water. He’s hated it ever since coming home from WWII’s Pacific Front in a ship that hit a typhoon. So here he is now, stuck on a boat stuffed with other guests, all of whom are a mystery to him. A couple of actresses, a couple of movie stars, a couple of horsemen, a television comic, a couple of Hollywood movie writers, a robber baron, and enough stewards to serve them all. Things are bad enough, but get a whole lot worse when one actress throws herself into the sea, the other actress disappears, and Jane goes missing. Sam’s stuck in an Agatha Christie book, a locked room case. And no one to help him but Mrs. Willingford and Holly.