Candles and Cyanide: A Paws and Portholes Mystery

About Candles and Cyanide: A Paws and Portholes Mystery

Aspiring novelist Maggie Caldwell boards the Royal Crest cruise ship with two goals: finish her first mystery manuscript and finally take a vacation with her meticulous Miniature Poodle, Biscuit. But when Hollywood legend Veronica Ashford collapses during the prestigious Captain's Dinner, Maggie's research into fictional murders becomes uncomfortably real. The actress's death is ruled a heart attack, but Biscuit's exceptional nose leads them to a scent that doesn't belong—and suddenly Maggie realizes that the signature candle flickering at Veronica's place setting might have been more than just an eccentric affectation.

Armed with her mystery writer's knowledge and Biscuit's talent for tracking unusual scents, Maggie begins investigating despite warnings from ship security. The suspects include Veronica's publicity-hungry assistant who handled the candle at every meal, a screenwriter whose pitch was publicly rejected, and a mysterious passenger who seems to have no connection to the actress at all. But when Biscuit traces a chemical scent to evidence the security team missed, Maggie discovers that this murder was planned with chilling precision—and that the killer has been hiding in plain sight, waiting for the perfect moment to exact revenge for a decade-old wrong.

As the ship sails toward its final port in Tampa, Maggie must piece together a puzzle where the murder weapon was a work of art, the motive runs deeper than anyone suspected, and the truth threatens to shatter more than one carefully constructed life. Can a writer who's only solved murders on paper catch a real killer before they disappear into the crowd at disembarkation? Or will Maggie discover that some mysteries are more dangerous to solve than others?