This title will be published on July 1,

Patricia Fisher is an average wife in East Malling when she catches her husband, Charlie, in bed with her best friend, Maggie. She realizes that, for her accountant husband, revenge is best served green, so in short order she empties their bank accounts and books herself the poshest suite for a three-month Caribbean tour on the soon-departing Aurelia.

As she’s adjusting to the fact that the suite comes with a private butler, the courtly young Jamaican Jermaine, a suave gentleman named Jack invites her to dine with him. Over the course of several hours, she consumes far too much alcohol, and as Jack helps her back to her suite, he also relieves her of her purse.

When she realizes she’s been robbed the next morning, she and Jermaine head for Jack’s room, where they find her purse … and Jack’s body, complete with a knife buried in his back. As they’re leaving, though, they encounter deputy captain Mr. Schooner, who declares the room a crime scene … and then, in short order, proclaims Patricia the killer, to be locked in her suite under armed guard until the ship reaches St. Kitts.

However, Jermaine has a butler’s entrance, and through it, he and Barbie, the ship’s trainer, help Patricia escape to sleuth for the real murderer. They prowl in search of a mysterious man Patricia first noticed during her boozy dinner, even slipping off the ship with Patricia disguised as Jermaine’s mother (which he protests as “culturally insensitive”), until they’re able to nab the killer and prove her innocence.

But how will Patricia answer Charlie’s pleas to reunite?

Steve Higgs’ new mystery series is funny, fascinating, and proof that, for women of a certain age, life begins when you board the cruise ship.