A Cruise To Die For

by Charlotte Elkins, Aaron Elkins, Kate Rudd (Read by)

Overview

This should be the cushiest job Alix London’s ever had.

Surrounded by art and wealth and the sun-drenched Greek isles, she’s aboard a sumptuous mega-yacht with no responsibilities save the occasional lecture to the guests of her temporary employer, Panos Papadakis, one of the world’s richest men. But there’s a catch: she’s there as an undercover operative of FBI special agent Ted Ellesworth, a member of the Bureau’s Art Crime Team. They hope Alix can gather the inside information they need to finally put the cagey Papadakis away.

Moguls, murders, a forged Manet, and the Albanian mafia all play a role and send this pleasure cruise into murderously dangerous waters.

The second Alix London mystery finds the art restorer in a world brimming with idle luxury, spectacular locations, and deadly intrigue, all served up with the style and sophistication with which Charlotte and Aaron Elkins have rewarded mystery fans for the past 30 years.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781480516274
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	09/03/2013
Series:	An Alix London Mystery , #2
Edition description:	Unabridged
Pages:	7
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 6.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

With their backgrounds in art scholarship, forensic anthropology, and psychology, Charlotte and Aaron Elkins were destined to be mystery writers. Between them, they’ve written 30 mysteries since 1982, garnering such awards as the Agatha Award for the best short story of the year, the Edgar Award for the year’s best mystery, and the Nero Wolfe Award for Literary Excellence. The pair revels in creating intensively researched works that are as accessible and absorbing as they are sophisticated and stylish. Charlotte was born in Houston, Texas, Aaron in New York City. They live on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.

Kate Rudd was born and raised in coastal West Michigan. Her lifelong love of storytelling led to a career in acting and vocal performance. Her audiobook narrations cover young adult, romance, and fantasy titles, including Celine Kiernan's Moorehawke Trilogy. Kate's work can be seen in several feature films and at www.KateRudd.com.

Editorial Reviews

Kate Rudd is an appealing actor with a lovely instrument, but she gets far less help than she needs here from her producers. The plot, starring Alix London, mildly ditzy girl art expert, involves a Ponzi scheme set among the international superrich on a yacht in the Aegean. Alix’s father, an American ex-con art fraudster, is supposed to have a fake English accent, but Rudd’s voicing goes way beyond plausible, and the English art dealer with the “real” accent sounds much like him. Her French is sometimes right, sometimes wrong (for the same word), but most distracting, she mispronounces far too many words well known to English speakers. (Scion. Damask. Madoff. Savile Row.) This book is goofy fun, but Rudd should have been better supported. B.G. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2013 - AudioFile

In the Elkinses’ lively, well-crafted second caper featuring Alix London (after 2012’s A Dangerous Talent), Ted Ellesworth of the FBI’s Art Crime Team recruits the Harvard-educated art historian to pose as a lecturer aboard the opulent yacht of Panos Papadakis, a Greek tycoon long suspected of running a Ponzi scheme. Papadakis is about to auction off some of his multimillion-dollar art collection, and Alix—young, pretty, and possessed of an uncanny eye for spotting forgeries—easily fits in with the colorful and well-heeled group that includes Papadakis’s imperious wife, a former opera star; Izzy Clinke, a flamboyant pop singer known as Pocahontas; and the Countess of Brabant’s nephew, the charming Roland de Beauvois, who’s not who he seems. Dramatic developments include Alix getting knocked unconscious while contemplating a Manet and the murder of a master art forger in New York. Everything in this witty, mildly romantic mystery connects in surprising ways. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

The Elkinses show why they are perennial favorites. It’s all very sun kissed and Greek Isles gorgeous in this sumptuous cat and mouse tale.”  —Library Journal

“Delightful characters… well worth your time and money.” —Night Owl Reviews

From the Publisher