About the Book

Book: Cruise to Death

Author: Sara L. Jameson

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Release Date: June 1, 2021

When opera singer Riley Williams agrees to sub as a musical-theater performer on a luxury Rhine/Moselle riverboat cruise, she gets more than she bargained for. Not only must she come up with 250 Broadway songs, she is required to dance with the male passengers. Dance—the subject she nearly failed in her Conservatory courses, and the cause of her recent flop in a European Opera House. To make matters worse, she overhears two terrorists at a café in Antwerp, Belgium, discussing the transfer of deadly agent X to the highest bioterrorist bidders.

Interpol agent Jacob Coulter, an anti-terrorism desk analyst in Brussels, Belgium, insists on serving as an undercover agent after his best friend Noel is murdered by terrorists from the Brussels cell he infiltrates. Shortly before Noel dies, he manages to tell Jacob snippets of the terrorists’ plans. Plans that seem to involve the same riverboat cruise Riley is on. When Interpol learns of Riley’s encounter with terrorists, Jacob’s supervisor insists he work with her to identify the terrorists and retrieve agent X. But their relationship is fraught with distrust because of Riley’s suspicious past and a romantic attraction neither of them wants.

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About the Author

Sara L. Jameson won Scrivenings Press’s grand prize publishing contract in January 2021. They released her debut romantic suspense novel, Cruise to Death, in June 2021. Death in High Places, (Book 2 in the Troubled Waters series), released February 2023, followed by Vengeance in Vienna, July 2024.

In real life, Sara is a multi-published, former university professor who writes non-fiction under her real name and edits book manuscripts for other authors. She also pens WWII historical novels. When not at her computer, she enjoys reading, swimming, cooking, dog-sitting, and spending time with friends.

More from Sara

For someone who loves to swim and enjoys cruising on a ship as long as land is in sight, a European riverboat cruise solved my anxiety. Cruise to Death was conceived during a Uniworld cruise that originated in Antwerp, Belgium, where my family had lived twenty-fives years prior and fallen in love with the country.

But the lack of security on the cruise concerned me. Especially when our ship docked parallel to another cruise line, and all passengers passed through the other boat to disembark and re-embark without staff scrutiny. Perfect place for someone not on your cruise to hide, right?

Perfect fodder for a romantic suspense novel. Add in a pickpocket who craftily robbed a family member, and a budding novelist determined the crime wouldn’t go unremembered. You know those writers’ T-shirts warning you whatever you say and do might end up in a novel—sometimes it’s true.

Part of the fun writing this story was a chance to retrace the stops along the Rhine and Moselle rivers and stay in settings that appear in the novel. If you have a chance to take a riverboat cruise, I highly recommend it!

Interview with the Author

Which character did you connect to best in this book?

Since I am a former professional singer who was active in the classical music field, climbing in Riley Williams’ head was the easiest character to write. In fact, many of her experiences as an opera singer are loosely based on some of my own. Having performed quite a lot of musical theater songs popular in the 1930s-1960s, selecting her repertoire for the cruise ship was fun too.

However, Riley is gutsier than I ever was and is one zany lady. But then, my own life in past seasons also involved run-ins with KGB agents. Yep. Fact.

What inspired this book?

Some years ago, my family and I took a European riverboat cruise with the same itinerary as Riley’s. At the time, the lack of security on the boat concerned me, as did the practice of ‘parallel parking’ the boats, which meant passengers cross through the other vessel to disembark. That set my writer’s brain churning with what ifs …

Even parts of the arch villain’s ‘interaction’ are loosely based on an event during that cruise.

What is your favorite Bible verse or life verse?

Honestly, I have so many favorite verses. However, I would have to say Psalm 91:1 in the AMPC version remains a verse I cling to.

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty, whose power no foe can withstand.

Describe your view as you’re sitting in your writing chair.

You really don’t want to know this. Or see it. Since moving cross-country almost two years ago, I have been on the road most of the time. The brief periods I am home, I am booking the next trip or recovering from the last one. Consequently, unless I am writing on the chaise longue on my lanai, if I look up from my computer, I am surrounded by mounds of still-packed boxes and piles of books and manuscripts waiting to be housed. May it happen soon!

If you could have one book or piece of art or music on a deserted island, what would it be and why?

Wow. What a tough question. There are so many symphonies or concertos or operatic arias I’d love to have on my deserted island. However, if this is truly a deserted island, I’d want my Bible and a praise song that draws me into the Lord’s presence. And there are scads of those songs.