Picked this up as part of collecting mysteries that use bridge, but it doesn't. Sixteen-year-old Rose is invited by her grandmother to join her on a cruise on which grandma is playing bridge. While grandma tries to fix Rose up with fellow teen Neil, she also meets Ricky, who is trying to get to the US from Cuba to seek asylum. Ricky is accused of murdering the man who helped him get from Cuba to Haiti. Rose feels she has to get involved and find a way to help Ricky.

A lightweight mystery with a decent portrayal of teen angst and conflicting feelings. The writing is competent and the [plot moves along quickly. ( )

This mystery will appeal more to YAs than to adults and I suppose that's not so shocking since Nixon is a much appreciated YA author according to my YA text. The story kept me reading and was enjoyable, but it's not a great piece of literature. It was a fun read and had a couple of twists that thew me and I like keeping my eye out for the important details of mysteries, but it didn't leave me thinking about the meaning of life too much (unlike _A Long Way Gone_, _The White Darkness_, _Day of Tears_ and some others read for this course.) I suppose this is why mysteries have never been my favorite genre. They're usually entertaining, but don't do too much for me in the grand scheme of things. I did appreciate (connect with) the mother/daughter relationship between Rosie (Rose) and her mother. Even though the mother wasn't physically present for most of the story, she was "present" with her daughter in her thoughts so much of the time. I think that good mothers have a presence in their children's lives even when they aren't physically present. (Maybe I'm wrong about this???) ( )

On a Caribbean cruise, sixteen-year-old Rosie meets a teenage Cuban baseball player seeking political asylum in the United States and tries to help him escape a charge of murder.