cover image Mystery of the Mermaid

Mystery of the Mermaid

Merla Zellerbach, . . Firefall, $27.50 (206pp) ISBN 978-0-915090-74-7

Fans of old-fashioned romantic mysteries will welcome Zellerbach's lighthearted puzzler set mainly aboard a Norwegian luxury liner on a 42-day South American cruise. The paths of 32-year-old San Francisco native Hallie Marsh, a PR whiz and breast cancer survivor, and Dan “Cas” Casserly, a magazine journalist who's one of the ship's lecturers, collide in an adventure that includes a missing passenger who may be a murder victim, a weird parapsychologist and a French divorcée. Despite Hallie's initial fears that her double mastectomy will doom any romance between her and the magnetic Cas, Zellerbach (Secrets in Time ) manages to put a humorous spin on the couple's courtship. One caveat: some readers may be disappointed that Cas turns out to be the key crime solver instead of Hallie. (Dec.)