Stella Hart is looking forward to five blissful days alone at sea with her new fiancée, George—no relatives, no responsibilities, nothing to keep them apart. But Stella’s bosses at Pinnacle Pictures have other ideas. Miss Cecilia Cuthbert of the London office is on board to be her chaperone, and she will not be dissuaded. If Miss Cuthbert has her way, Stella will spend the whole voyage holed up in her cabin answering fan mail and signing autographs.

Desperate for freedom, Stella comes up with a plan. With the help of one of George’s old school friends and her own genius lady’s maid, Sophie, she will transform the ugly duckling chaperone into a distracted, happy swan. But while Stella only means to help Miss Cuthbert have her own shipboard romance, the result is murder.

Continuing the murderous and madcap adventures of silent movie actress Stella Hart that began in Guinevere’s Revenge, The Passion of Miss Cuthbert is another Agatha Christie romantic mystery Mrs. Christie somehow neglected to write. Acclaimed romance author Lucy Blue has created a classic 1920s detective with a modern chick lit heart.

Marissa Rothfarb