Murder on the Nerd Cruise

"Dieker is a master of obfuscation." —Kirkus Reviews

Join Larkin, Ed, Anni, and Elliott as they solve a cruise-ship mystery!

After spending her summer solving murders and staging Shakespeare, Larkin Day is ready for a vacation. When her best friend Anni invites Larkin to join her on a themed cruise for tabletop gamers and sci-fi and fantasy fans—as well as mathematicians, magicians, musicians, and anyone who wants to spend a week relaxing in the Caribbean—Larkin says "Bon voyage!"

Although Larkin considers herself more of a theater geek than a nerd, she quickly finds herself bonding with the other passengers. So does Larkin's boyfriend Ed, who finds a community of Black nerds who are more than eager to have him on board. Anni and her boyfriend Elliott, who have taken this cruise before, assure Larkin that it is statistically unlikely for there to be any murders aboard ship.

"Most cruise ships have a morgue, of course," Anni explains, "just in case there's an accidental death."

That's why, when popular fantasy author Adamantine Darcy stops making appearances on deck—and then stops making appearances altogether—people assume the death is accidental. Adamantine was 80 years old, after all. She was also 80 pages away from finishing the final book in her best-selling series, The Time Tangent Gentleman.

"It's a tragedy," Anni says, "but not a murder."

Until Larkin discovers that Adamantine's body is missing its head.