Angie and her boyfriend, Paavo Smith, head to Mexico via San Francisco on a Norwegian freighter, the Valhalla, on their first and much needed vacation together. Paavo doesn't want to travel on a cruise ship, packed like sardines, with a cruise director bossing him around, so Angie chooses a freighter because of the small number of crew and passengers. She hopes a romantic trip on the high seas and a secluded villa in Acapulco, where she is going to write an article for Haute Cuisine, will raise their relationship to a new level with a marriage proposal.

While boarding, Paavo is vague and absent-minded, so when the ship's cook races madly to the railing and tries to jump overboard while screaming hysterically, Angie isn't sure who is acting stranger, the chef or Paavo, who keeps smiling blankly and telling her everything is fine.

When Paavo announces there is something they need to celebrate, Angie hears wedding bells, but instead, he tells her that he is resigning from his job as a homicide detective. He knows the danger that goes along with his occupation is something she hates and thinks she will be pleased, but Angie is suspicious of his motives and abstracted air. Paavo is normally very astute and detail-oriented, but his disinterest in his surroundings is driving her crazy.

As if a missing cook is not a strange enough way to begin a cruise, one of their stewards, Sven Ingerson, becomes ill and is taken to a hospital in Los Angeles. Angie finds their things moved around in their cabin and is sure something is going on. When she asks for a brighter light for their room, she is surprised to see a bug (the electronic kind) fall out of the new lamp. Finally Paavo, his interest piqued, takes her seriously and gets involved by calling his police buddies for some personal histories of the crewmembers and passengers. At last, he is ready to share with her his real reasons for resigning.

Paavo's partner discovers from the FBI that Sven, masquerading as a street performer, is one of the last people to see and communicate with the famous scientist, Professor Conrad Von Mueller, in front of his office right before he is murdered. It is rumored the Professor invented a new form of cost effective fuel, something better than cold fusion, and a great many people and countries are interested in finding the missing formula. Paavo assumes Sven put the Professor's formula somewhere on the ship, and since he had access to their room, someone must think it is hidden there.

The Captain, First Mate, stewards, and the new cooks are all suspects, along with two elderly couples and a British agent pretending to be an art collector. Also, there are four eccentric, retired secret agents from around the world, a powerful Mexican Colonel with his henchman, and a mysterious and deadly woman named Hydra. When their ship is unable to dock in Cabo San Lucas because of a suspiciously non-existent strike, it moves on to Mazatlan. At that time, the air conditioning breaks down and the passengers decide to wait for the repairs at local hotels. Angie and Paavo find the food delicious there, but the city is dangerous to their health.

As usual, Joanne Pence prepares a book with both sensible and singularly unusual characters, throwing in a dash of haute cuisine. The romance between Angie and Paavo, while not the focus of the book, continues to develop and give insight into their personalities. Importantly, Angie is perfectly capable of saving her man, and Paavo always looks out for Angie first. The mystery, although a little too easy to solve, isn't a determining factor for taking delight in the book. The story's charm lies in the characters and their unusual actions, idiosyncrasies, and misdeeds, guiding the plot towards a curious comedy of errors and culminating in a fervently funny finale.

--Monica Pope