This suspense/thriller is set on a Caribbean cruise ship and Miami's Little Havana. Over 20 million people cruise each year. In recent years, over 150 people have disappeared from cruises. "Dead in the Water" traces the disappearance of one of those missing persons. A young bride on her honeymoon, she seems to disappear into thin air aboard the flagship of the Mariner cruise line, the Mardi Gras. The head of security aboard the Mardi Gras, Lieutenant Mario Morales, a former LAPD homicide detective investigates and unravels a mysterious plot involving drug smuggling by the Chinese and a lawyer more interested in money than upholding the law. Suspects in connection with her disappearance include the new bride's husband and her a employer, a wealthy automobile dealer with a shady past. With help from his deputy, Sergeant Virginia Boudreaux and a newspaper reporter, Ken Hendricks. Lieutenant Morales not only finds out what happened to the missing bride, he solves another crime that had gone completely unnoticed, even by the FBI. Morales is a somewhat cynical, but ultimately decent man. If you are a fan of P.D. James' Adam Dalgliesh or Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse, you will enjoy following Lieutenant Morales as he conducts his investigation, strictly according to the rules. Although fiction, the story that "Dead in the Water" tells could have just as easily been torn out of today's newspapers. It is a "must read" for anyone who has ever taken a cruise or who wants to. "Dead in the Water" is the first in a series of Lieutenant Morales novels.

Lieutenant Mario Morales was looking forward to a relaxing week on beautiful Palm Island. Most of all he was hoping to build a romantic relationship with the exotic and beautiful, Sun Li. The last thing he was looking for was murder. But murder found him the very day he arrived on the island. Two bodies turn up dead in the water in Palm Island Sound. One is the body of a modern Don Juan, who boasted that he has bedded half the women on the island. The other body is that of a woman of a certain age. What do they have in common? Morales must find out who killed them and why despite roadblocks put in his way by an apparently lazy chief of police..In the middle of his investigation, Sun Li disappears. While trying to solve the two murders, he also must find Sun Li. The story leads up to an explosive conflict that brings everything together.If you enjoy Harlan Coben's novels, you'll love this romantic suspense novel, the second in the Lieutenant Morales mystery series. The first book in the series is Dead in the Water, which is available on Amazon.

When Lieutenant Morales is accused of trying to murder his wife, the exotic Sun Li, Morales will go to any length to find the real attacker. His search takes him from South Florida to Shanghai. While in China, Morales unearths a conspiracy with an American senator at its center.