HARD TACK

Journalist Catherine ``Cat'' Marsala (Hardball, 1990), who never learned to swim, is assigned a piece on the weekend sailing guests aboard the Easy Girl, a millionaire's luxury yacht. The not- quite-congenial guests include: owners Will and Belinda Honeywell; their son Bill and his girlfriend Mary; a 40-ish surgeon and his wife, the incorrigible tease Twinkie; a Broadway star; a Japanese boat-designer/engineer; an eligible physician; a college kid flunky; and boorish tycoon Chuck Kroop. A storm comes up. Chuck is helped to the bunk. The door is locked. When it's unlocked, his throat has been cut. Whodunit? Then Twinkie disappears; the food supply gets down to champagne, caviar, and Cheez Whiz; and the yacht is becalmed—its radio doesn't work, and neither does its auxiliary motor. Fighting seasickness, Cat figures it all out and confronts the killer, who tries to dump her overboard but gets dumped instead. Silly motive and straining to be a clever locked-room murder, but Cat is amusingly self-deprecating company.