As the sleek ship sails further from San Francisco, the stock market begins to falter. Amidst frantic celebrations, sexy flappers and good times that are expected to last forever, the warnings are ignored. While more than three hundred millionaires sail from San Francisco on a luxurious two-month cruise, they are unaware that their comfortable lives are about to change.

The Roaring Twenties forms the backdrop and the newest luxury liner, the SS Malolo, provides the stage in an elegant mystery where every reader knows the conclusion. Some thirty days later -- on October 29, 1929 -- it will...