This time it is Felix's sheltered sister, Amelia, who joins her brother on the Caribbean Honey. Although she has a crush on wealthy Henry, his brat pack friends tell Amelia (the daughter of the cruise line owner) that she is only interested in him for his money. On a visit to Hemingway House in Key West, Brad, one of the spoiled rich kids, is murdered. Hope finds a cat covered in blood splatter and then witnesses the cat vomit up an earring.
Esperanza, the young woman who was rescued from human traffickers in the previous novel, turns out to be Hope's identical sister. It was Dae-un who heard the story of how Hope was abandoned by her father at a hospital in Texas and said, "Hey, you really do look alike and Esperanza had a baby sister who was taken to the US by their father". Small world!
On a positive note, Hope is now smirking on a less frequent basis. Did someone finally tell the author the unpleasant connotation this word carries?