Houseboat Mystery — Jane Edwards

Ship Ahoy…

It all started because Jackie Torrance, the Courier's newest reporter, needed a place to live. She was desperate when she accepted a dare to see if she could rent the Albatross, a battered houseboat last used by Lance Shelby, the Courier's star correspondent, whose untimely death in a plane crash had just made headlines. But Jackie got to Dodson's Dockyard to late -- the Albatross had been sold and its new owner, ex-Navy man Whitney Egan, was having words with another would-be buyer, “Mr. Smith,” as he called himself, wanted the houseboat at any price, but Whit, with plans for turning it into a floating restaurant, wasn't about to sell. It was soon obvious, though, that the redheaded sailor had bought himself a cargo of trouble along with a boat. And Jackie impulsively made his troubles hers, never dreaming they were defying an enemy who wouldn't stop at murder to get what her wanted…

It all started because dark-haired Jackie Torrance, the Courier's newest reporter, needed a place to live. It was wonderful being back in Santa Teresa, the little seacoast town where she had lived before her father was transferred to Los Angeles -- and Jackie intended to stay there if humanly possible. Being Valerie Prescott's house guest, however, would end abruptly when Val became the bride of Lieutenant Gregory Malden.

Jackie was grasping at straws when she accepted Cameraman Rigney's dare to go and see if she could rent the Albatross, the houseboat that brilliant newsman Lance Shelby -- whose death in an air crash in Hong Kong had just been reported -- had been using.

But Jackie got to the Albatross too late. Indeed, the new owner of the Albatross -- Whitney Egan -- was having words with another would-be buyer when she got there. The man said he was “Mr. Smith,” but to Jackie, he looked like anything but a “Mr. Smith,” unless it was Smithovitch. Whit, it developed later, had learned of the Albatross being up for sale when he overheard a telephone conversation. He hadn't seen the caller, but he had caught a pronounced Southern drawl.

It appeared that young Whit had bought a lot of trouble along with the Albatross, a well-named houseboat. Whit's plans to turn the Albatross into a floating restaurant were about to hit a snag. And Whit's battle became Jackie's when she learned that Whitney Egan, who had just left the Navy for civilian life, was a buddy of Val's Navy lieutenant.

Whatever it was the strangers were after, it seemed to be a life-and-death matter. And a nosy young girl reporter and a Navy lieutenant-turned restaurant proprietor were not going to stop them from wrecking the Albatross, if necessary to get what they wanted!


Also published as: The Affair of the Albatross