Death Wasn't on the Itinerary

By Christine Hartwell

Dot Marsh has never met a sweepstakes she didn't enter, and this time she won twelve nights on a luxury river cruise down the Danube.

Her daughter Claire came along reluctantly. Eighteen months a widow, Claire is the kind of woman who notices everything and feels almost nothing, moving through Budapest and Vienna as if through scratched glass. The cruise was supposed to be harmless. A distraction. Something to get through.

Then one of their fellow passengers turns up dead.

The crew insists it was an accident: a dangerous path, a misstep, a tragedy. But Claire saw the man at dinner, and something about him was off, like a painting hung a quarter-inch crooked. When she and Dot discover he was traveling under a false name, the official story starts to unravel.

As the MS Danube Crown glides from Budapest toward Vienna, Melk, Linz, and Passau, Claire's quiet, watchful mind and Dot's fearless way with strangers pull them into old secrets, hidden money, and a crime someone has spent decades trying to bury.

Murder wasn't on the itinerary. But neither was Claire finding her way back to herself.

The Lucky Ticket Mysteries, Book 1 - a warm, witty, fair-play cozy for fans of mother-daughter sleuths, elegant settings, and armchair travel.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H9DG6C27
• ISBN13: 9798235369849
• Release Date: June 2026
• Publisher: Christine Hartwell
• Length: 284 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 8.0"