Hard Tack: A Cat Marsala Mystery - Hardcover

D'Amato, Barbara

3.77

96 ratings by Goodreads

9780684192994: Hard Tack: A Cat Marsala Mystery

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684192993 ISBN 13: 9780684192994

Publisher: Scribner, 1991

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Chicago journalist and amateur sleuth Cat Marsala is looking forward to a cruise aboard a million-dollar yacht, but she soon finds herself embroiled in a baffling locked-room mystery aboard ship and the possible target of a killer

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About the Author:

Barbara D'Amato was the 1999-2000 president of Mystery Writers of America. D'Amato is also a past president of Sisters in Crime International. She writes a mystery series starring Chicago freelance investigative reporter Cat Marsala, a series starring Chicago patrol cops Suze Figueroa and Norm Bennis, and standalone novels. D'Amato is a playwright, novelist, and crime researcher. Her research on the Dr. John Branion murder case formed the basis for a segment on Unsolved Mysteries, and she appeared on the program. Her musical comedy The Magic Man and the children's musical The Magic of Young Houdini, written with husband Anthony D'Amato, played in Chicago and London. Their Prohibition-era musical comedy RSVP Broadway, which played in Chicago in 1980, was named an "event of particular interest" by Chicago magazine. A native of Michigan, she has been a resident of Chicago for many years. D'Amato has been a columnist for the Sisters in Crime newsletter and Mystery Scene magazine. She has worked as an assistant surgical orderly, carpenter for stage magic illusions, assistant tiger handler, stage manager, researcher for attorneys in criminal cases, and she occasionally teaches mystery writing to Chicago police officers.

From Kirkus Reviews:

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. -- Copyright �1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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