- Philip Trent is tired of playing film detective Shelby James, thinking that the stories are tripe, and plans a vacation to get away from Hollywood. But on the ship he meets a mysterious young woman, then finds a body--then discovers that the whole affair was staged by Peter Dean, author of the Shelby James novels. But then Mr. Van Mier is found murdered in the same way and the Dragon diamond is missing. No matter what Philip tries to do, he finds himself involved with the crime and meddles his way through it looking for the killer and the diamond--with help from Peter Dean.—Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>
- Movie star Philip Trent has appeared as amateur detective Shelby James, amateur detective, in six movies, which he believes are the worst murder mysteries ever filmed despite their success. He considers all the characters poorly conceived and the situations completely unrealistic. He blames their poor quality on the source material, the Shelby James series of novels written by Peter Dean. The latest novel has just been published--the next movie in the series--and for the first time, producer Ben Kelvin has hired Dean to write the screenplay. However, Trent has no intention of ever appearing as Shelby James again. To decompress from wrapping the sixth movie, Trent wants some peace and quiet aboard a Los-Angeles-to-San-Francisco cruise ship on which he will travel incognito. Much to his surprise, Trent discovers that Dean is aboard the cruise to convince him to appear in the next movie. But the bigger surprise for Trent about Dean is that "he" is a she, the nom de plume for professional reasons. On the cruise, a murder occurs seemingly connected to the theft of the valuable White Dragon diamond which was being transported to San Francisco--and Dean and Trent are pulled into the case. With an oddball cast of characters aboard the cruise, including studio publicity man Mert Morgan who will do anything to publicize Trent and the new movie, Trent and Dean get into one "Shelby James" scenario after another, which may be best served by thinking like James himself.—Huggo
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