A Cruise to Die For

by Heather Graham

Special agents face deadly, uncharted waters in this tense romantic thriller

Special Agent Chloe McMurray has been asked to do many things in the name of her job. Going undercover on a cruise ship leaving from her home port of Miami, however, is a new one. Not only that, but she’s tasked with posing as the wife of her federal counterpart, Special Agent Wesley Law.

Their investigation? A string of murders and suicides across three states that seem unrelated, until they uncover a deadly technological connection. Every victim was an expert in technology and had some connection to Milestones, a megacorporation with ties to many industries...including the cruise industry.

Chloe and Wesley must successfully go undercover as tech employees on the ship hosting the ten-year anniversary of the Milestones cruise company. A tough ask when the two have never met before. They’ll infiltrate the technology events, investigate their fellow passengers and try to uncover what’s really going on.

However, danger is never far behind. Their killer can use tech to do the job without lifting a finger, and at sea, there’s no escape if their covers are blown

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Romance, Audiobook, Suspense, Fiction, Mystery Thriller

448 pages, Paperback

First published April 7, 2026

About the author

Also published as Heather Graham Pozzessere and Shannon Drake.

New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Heather Graham majored in theater arts at the University of South Florida. After a stint of several years in dinner theater, back-up vocals, and bartending, she stayed home after the birth of her third child and began to write, working on short horror stories and romances. After some trial and error, she sold her first book, WHEN NEXT WE LOVE, in 1982 and since then, she has written over one hundred novels and novellas including category, romantic suspense, historical romance, vampire fiction, time travel, occult, and Christmas holiday fare. She wrote the launch books for the Dell's Ecstasy Supreme line, Silhouette's Shadows, and for Harlequin's mainstream fiction imprint, Mira Books.

Heather was a founding member of the Florida Romance Writers chapter of RWA and, since 1999, has hosted the Romantic Times Vampire Ball, with all revenues going directly to children's charity.

She is pleased to have been published in approximately twenty languages, and to have been honored with awards frorn Waldenbooks. B. Dalton, Georgia Romance Writers, Affaire de Coeur, Romantic Times, and more. She has had books selected for the Doubleday Book Club and the Literary Guild, and has been quoted, interviewed, or featured in such publications as The Nation, Redbook, People, and USA Today and appeared on many newscasts including local television and Entertainment Tonight.

Heather loves travel and anything have to do with the water, and is a certitified scuba diver. Married since high school graduation and the mother of five, her greatest love in life remains her family, but she also believes her career has been an incredible gift, and she is grateful every day to be doing something that she loves so very much for a living.

Reviews

[Sheri]

The attractive cover drew me in, and the setting sounded ideal for a thrilling mystery, but this was a miss for me. There were no thrills, and the mystery was dull, lacking intensity and escalating tension. The enactment was flat and unexciting, as were the suspects, especially as the book proceeded. By the end the characters all blended together and the culprit and motive were lost on me as I was too uninterested to care.

[Skyler]

I picked this up because I love cruises and the idea of a thriller set at sea had so much potential. Confined space, limited suspects, nowhere to run — all the ingredients for tension and intrigue were there. Unfortunately, this one didn’t deliver.

The writing leaned heavily on telling rather than showing. The dialogue often felt stiff and unnatural, like watching actors read lines in a rehearsal instead of real people having real conversations. It pulled me out of the story more than once.

The central mystery had promise, but the cast didn’t help. The suspects and side characters felt flat and one-dimensional, and the dynamic between the two agents at the heart of the story had zero chemistry. I usually love ensemble casts in mysteries, but this group didn’t leave much of an impression.

I really wanted to enjoy this, but the execution just didn’t match the concept. If you’re looking for a gripping cruise thriller, I’d keep sailing.

[K.]

Too many exclamation points! I've read many Heather Graham books. I'm not sure this is her writing.

Have waaayyyy to many TBR books to waste any more time here.

[Tasha]

This book was not at all what I was expecting... it had a great premise and a fun, atmospheric cruise ship setting, but the execution was a bit uneven for me. I found myself disconnected from the characters, not really caring about them.

The mystery starts strong, yet the pacing slows in places and the twists were predictable. The dialog felt robotic and didn't hold my attention well, I found myself skimming through pieces of the story.

I enjoyed the setting and suspense elements, but I wanted more tension and tighter plotting. A solid, quick read... just not one that fully swept me away.

[Lydia Ralte]

This is my experience reading the book and opinions from it -

The characters felt unformed. The mystery was not enthralling. For the first half of the book, I waited for it to pick up and I never DNF a book especially since plot twists happen at the end. This book had no spectacular moment.

It was all quite flat.

[Makayla :)]

2.7 ⭐️
While I am a huge fan of thrillers, this one sadly fell flat for me.

The title and cover really drew me into this one. I liked the concept of the cruise ship for sure, but I was wanting more with the plot.

I will definitely be giving Heather Graham another shot, this book just wasn’t my favorite. Looking forward to reading more of her!

[UpstateBookBtch]

As someone who has been on over 30 cruises ( everything from intimate small vessels to massive mega-ships) I always go into a cruise themed book with high hopes and a skeptical eye. Unfortunately, this one missed the mark for me.

One of my biggest pet peeves in cruise-set fiction is when it feels like an author hasn't spent much time on an actual ship. Whether it’s getting the terminology wrong or misunderstanding how things actually work on board, it breaks the immersion immediately. While the setting here had potential, it lacked the "ship-life" feel that a frequent cruiser expects.

The other big miss for me was that I found the conversations in this book to be quite stiff and forced. The dialogue didn't flow naturally, which made it difficult to really connect with the characters or feel the tension of the plot. The characters were very flat.

The story sounded promising on paper, but between the lack of realistic detail and the fake dialogue, it just didn't hold water for me. If you’re a HG reader, you might enjoy the mystery… but I’d probably skip it.

[Lizz]

Lost at Sea in More Ways Than One
I finished A Cruise to Die For and I will be honest, I had to work hard to piece together exactly what had happened by the end. The broad strokes were there but the details just did not stick the way I needed them to in order to stay fully invested.
The premise has real potential. Two federal agents going undercover as a married couple on a luxury cruise ship to investigate a string of suspicious deaths tied to a powerful tech corporation sounds like exactly the kind of breezy, fast paced romantic thriller I enjoy. Unfortunately it just never clicked for me personally.
This was not a narrator issue. The performance was fine. It was more that the story itself could not hold my attention the way I kept hoping it would. I found my mind drifting more often than not, and in a mystery thriller where the details matter, that is a significant problem.
I did see it through to the end, which I always appreciate in myself, but I came away feeling more relieved than satisfied.
At 2.5 stars from me, this one simply was not the right match for my reading taste. Heather Graham has a devoted readership and fans of romantic suspense may find a lot more to enjoy here than I did. For me it was a miss, but sometimes that is just how it goes.

[Jaelyn Terhune]

This is my first DNF this year. There was an exclamation point after every other sentence. I could not handle it. And I could also tell that the characters had no depth to them. They all acted the same when introduced. Nope. Very sad tho cause it was cruise themed! But I literally could not force myself to read it.

[Myriam]

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review. A Cruise to Die For by Heather Graham releases on April 7th.

I want to start off by saying that I was super excited for this book because I love cruises and the premise sounded really good. I did like the concept of the plot overall and the fact that there was a sprinkle of romance.

However, I unfortunately did not enjoy this read. I think my main issue was with the dialogue. It felt robotic, and sometimes it didn’t even make sense. The exclamation marks, ellipses, and em dashes were really overused (almost in every line of dialogue), which made the reading experience less enjoyable.

I do think the whodunit plot and the twist were well thought out, but I just couldn’t get into the story because of the writing style.

[Jen Ryland (jenrylandreviews & yaallday)]

I love a book with a Miss Congeniality kind of premise of an FBI agent going undercover. And I love a good thriller set on a ship. I have a whole list of Thrillers Set on Boats, Trains, and Planes


But writing style of A Cruise to Die For just didn't jibe with my brain. The first chapter sounded to me like the stream of consciousness thoughts of one character, a female FBI agent. But it was also in the third person. It came out sounding like the speech to text dictation I use on my phone. The writing did improve a little after that but for me, this book never really came together and I think the low Goodreads rating is fair.

So sorry to the publisher :( It just wasn't for me.

[Howard Davis]

As a fan of mystery/thrillers and one who has been on numerous cruises, the title of the book appealed to me. Having never read a novel by Ms. Graham, I didn’t know what to expect. I found the book very disappointing and poorly written. A good portion of the book was very repetitive and the constant “as you wish “ became very annoying! The characters were not believable nor was there anything compelling or thrilling about the novel.

[Bonnie]

Love Heather Graham books was looking forward to read this one , but was disappointed. Felt flat and I struggled just to finish the book.

[Abigail Ehrhart]

This is such an amazing premise, a cruise ship, two law enforcement agents undercover and a killer or killers to find.

Unfortunately this fails on every level. The group of suspects/potential victims? Who knows, I can't keep them straight and I have no motivation to care. The motive(s)? Something vaguely to do with some corporate nonsense blah blah cyber security blah blah. Our investigative team is fine. They have about as much heat as that cup of coffee sitting on my desk since yesterday. I honestly couldn't tell you who the culprit(s) are. It's hard to have a big reveal when your characters are so uninteresting that you forget who they are and can't tell them apart. Only finished for my reading challenge

[Bernadette]

The storyline is meh! The number of mistakes in the story is incredible. Obviously the writer and editor were out to lunch on the reread.
For the sample, Referring to an event as happening last night when it actually happens earlier in the day; confusing which characters are actually in a scene; mixing up characters. What a farce

[Leiba]

So many exclamation points! The book was meant to be exciting, I get it! But when all I could focus on was the excessive punctuation, none of that really mattered! It was far too distracting! But I still was able to notice that some characters’ names were mixed up! Someone really ought to have caught that!

[Henry Reed]

Care to read a review of A CRUISE TO DIE FOR? As you wish! (hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, that was the funniest thing you've heard all week.)

Shall we proceed? As you wish! (ooooooooh, that was witty and clever!)

If you'd like me to start with an overall impression, well then: As you wish! (*chortle* *grin* *guffaw* we're back to humor!)

So, yeah: A CRUISE TO DIE FOR appears to have been assembled in committee. Heather Graham had the first role as author. Then, an editor either FIXED half the book and made it pretty good, or MESSED WITH half the book and ruined it. Roughly half the story was compelling and smart; the other half was obnoxious filler and unartful exposition and uninteresting dreck. There's no way the same person is responsible for both intermingled halves.

Okay, are you ready for the third member of the committee? As you wish! (I'm sure you picked up on the foreboding and drama that time.) Well, the final contributor had only one assignment: Add as many "As you wish!" references as possible. In the end, this resulted in roughly 25 percent of the words in the book. Dozens and dozens and dozens of times from multiple characters, in every possible scenario. Tense situation? Easily communicated by adding an "As you wish!" Indication of fear? As you wish! Flirty romance? As you wish! It really is the perfect phrase; it's always clear what it implies and it never--never!--grows old. Want me to say "As you wish!" again? As you wish!

Does Graham think it's cute or clever to name a character Wes(ley) and then drop in a few awkward Princess Bride references and a hundred "As you wish!"es? And they're literally on a ship but no reference to the Dread Pirate Roberts? I'm stopping here because I am tempted to bypass a drop down to one star and instead update my review to DNF even though I read every word.

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[Janalyn, the blind reviewer]

A Cruise To Die For by Heather Gram, I don’t know who edited this book nor do I understand why the publisher thought this was a great book to publish I can understand suspending belief for a book but providing your own emotional context for conversations is almost impossible this book was supposed to be a tentative romance between the two investigators But the conversations were so stiff and abnormal it made it hard to get into the book not just that but he wouldn’t of been on a cruise nor would she be investigating a murder and international waters that’s not how that works but I digress I think if you haven’t been on a cruise don’t write a book about a cruise ship and if you don’t know International law don’t write a book about an international murder because that’s what it is when someone gets murdered on a cruise ship. I started the day of reading a book by an independent author whose book was way more well worded with a better put together plot etc and you get this book who’s backed by a publisher and it makes me wonder who did they allow to read these books to say yeah I would publish this I mean they out to make money don’t they know people are going to find out how bad these books are. I digress there was just too much wrong with this book to give it anything other than a one star I apologize to Miss Gram but if you want a better reading then do better. Even you can read this and no you could’ve done better. #NetGalley, #TheBlindReviewer, #MyHonestReview,#WhatABadBook,

[Anne]

A Cruise to Die For by Heather Graham was an engaging police procedural featuring Chloe Murray, who is with a state law enforcement agency and Wesley Law, who was a federal agent. They were to be partnered as a married couple and were searching for a murderer and trying to stop another. The plus was the assignment was on a luxury cruise, the down side was that there were over six hundred people on the yacht. It was about tech people who had been dying. Some appeared to be suicides, others murder-suicides. All high level teach folks. This cruise was important because the hook was the tech classes that were to be offered as they were sailing. It became an interesting investigation as the duo drew clearer to the murderer.

Good characters, interesting setting, and an intriguing plot, however unlikely. It was a very readable book filled with interesting characters and near misses. Lots of misdirection and situations that were not expected. Good read.

I was invited to read A Cruise to Die For by Harlequin Trade Publishing. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #HarlequinTradePublishing #HeatherGraham #ACruiseToDieFor

[Robin Loves Reading]

Come on over to the high seas for Heather Graham’s latest novel, A Cruise to Die For. Special Agent Chloe McMurray has been assigned to pose as the wife of another Special Agent, Wesley Law. While this isn’t the first time the pair have worked together, their careers have largely taken them in different directions.

Chloe and Wesley are investigating a series of suspicious deaths that have occurred across several states. The only apparent connection is that each victim has ties to a cruise line owned by the powerful corporation Milestones. Boarding one of the company’s ships undercover, the agents hope to get to know the employees and determine whether one of them might be responsible for the murders.

What they uncover is far more complex than they anticipated. There appears to be a sophisticated technological scheme appears to be at the center of the mystery. This scheme may hold the key to understanding both the motive behind the deaths and the identity of the killer.

Danger lurks around every corner for Chloe and Wesley. Not only must they contend with a potential murderer, but they also find themselves up against technology that seems to have a mind of its own. The stakes continue to rise as they race to uncover the truth before becoming victims themselves.

Alongside the suspense, Graham weaves in a slow-burn romance between Chloe and Wesley. The growing attraction between them adds warmth and depth to an already engaging mystery, making for a well-balanced blend of romance and suspense.

Many thanks to MIRA and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

[Monica Woolard]

This book kept my attention till the end. The subjects of cyber security along with social media, hackers, being aware of your surroundings, among other topics, tie in nicely to life today. Having it set on a cruise ship made it more suspenseful. I’ve read some of this author’s ‘Krewe of Hunters’ books - they were also very good.

[Maxine Burns]

I read this book because I love cruising and mysteries. It did have some interesting characters and the plot seemed intriguing. It was my first Heather Graham book but next time I’ll pick one of her best sellers.

[Sam]

Really bad

[Joanna]

Too! Many! Exclamation! Points!
Where! Is! The! Editor?!
Did! Not! Enjoy! Full! Stop!

[Tracy Lucas]

This book was pretty awful. Sorry. Too many exclamation points. Unrealistic plot and unlikable characters. I am not a quitter so I finished but it was really bad.

[Hannah Kruger]

The writing and dialogue were so poorly written I couldn’t get more than 1.5 chapters in before throwing in the towel

[Penny Perovich]

Didn’t make it past page 25!!! Figured I would add some exclamation points 😁. I have read a lot of Heather Graham books, but this one was terrible. Sorry. I cruise all the time and thought a murder mystery would be a great read. Sadly I was mistaken. Dialogue was childish and I just couldn’t get past that to continue.

[Nicole]

I felt like I was reading another author. What’s with all the !

[Kasey Rehbein]

I was so excited for the premise of this, but I absolutely could not overlook the unbelievable amount of exclamation points. On one singular page, there were 15. I just could not handle it.

[Vicki Manning]

This was awful. I got through the first 5 chapters and couldn't go on.