A Cruise to Die For

An Alix London Mystery, Book 2

By: Charlotte Elkins, Aaron Elkins

Narrated by: Kate Rudd

This should be the cushiest job Alix London's ever had.

The second Alix London Mystery finds the art restorer in a world brimming with idle luxury, spectacular locations, and deadly intrigue.

Surrounded by art and wealth and the sun-drenched Greek isles, she's aboard a sumptuous mega-yacht with no responsibilities save the occasional lecture to the guests of her temporary employer, Panos Papadakis, one of the world's richest men. But there's a catch: Papadakis has long been suspected of being at the center of a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme and Alix is actually there as an undercover operative of FBI special agent Ted Ellesworth, a member of the Bureau's Art Crime Team. They hope Alix can gather the inside information they need to finally put the cagey Papadakis away.

Alix's exposure to the enormous wealth of high-end collectors and the shadier aspects of the art trade - the avarice, naked greed, and ingenious scams - somehow brings her closer to her charming, "reformed" rogue of a father, and helps crystalize in her own mind just where she fits into the mix.

Moguls, murders, a forged Manet, and the Albanian mafia all play a role and send this pleasure cruise into brutally dangerous waters.

Set on the Aegean - Homer's fabled "wine-dark sea" - with stops at enchanted islands where ancient legends still live, A Cruise to Die For delivers a witty blend of suspense and mystery, as well as an insider's take on the contemporary art world and its eccentric characters. It's all served up with the style and sophistication with which Charlotte and Aaron Elkins have rewarded mystery listeners for the past 30 years.

©2013 Charlotte and Aaron Elkins (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Charming Art Mystery

I really enjoy these books. The background of art forgery and the characters are great! I look forward to listening to all of them!

The narrator is excellent. She handles men's and women's voices, as well as a diverse array of accents and artist and artwork names. Great job!

I highly recommend these mysteries to art lovers and mystery lovers. Really interesting and informative books!

Enjoyable

This second installment in the series is even more enjoyable than the first, with many tidbits about art and the area around Greece. The narrator is a wonderful reader and does voices well, but her English accent falls short and mispronunciation of several words should have been caught by an editor. These are small distractions from a pleasant tale, though.

What a fun exotic mystery.

Charlotte and Aaron Elkins (husband & wife team) have created a wonderful art world mystery with characters you love (except the bad guys, of course) and a
gorgeous super posh setting aboard a mega yacht in the beautiful Aegean Sea among the Greece islands. (Bracketed by brief times in New York and DC.)

Alex, daughter of a famous art forger - who's paid for his crime with 8 years in prison - and who is an art expert in her own right and can spot a forgery at a single glance, has been asked by the FBI to attend a week long art auction on the above yacht, owned by a super rich Greek dealer in Old World art. She is to observe and report on the art as well on the wealthy patrons on board. That's all.

But she is barely on board before she identifies the first painting she sees - a Manet - as a forgery. Amateur sleuth that she is, she expresses her opinion to the crowd. It's not long before she is attacked and the painting slashed. Who did each? And why?

As she gets to know and like the fellow cruisers a astonishing secret operation is revealed.

The climax is action packed, with Alex literally in the middle with her life in dire danger.

When all the pieces are later sorted, she is astonished at the evil, and the getting away with crime. At the very end, back home in New York she receives an even over-the-top grand surprise that will have readers cheering and maybe weeping for joy. I kid you not!

Hard to start

The beginning was a bit painful, mostly due to the narrator. But after a while it settled down and became a standard mystery.

too much of book 1 included in book 2.

Convoluted story line, the ending didn't make much sense to me. I love series books and the art aspect of this series but am reluctant to get the third book.