• Age: 9 to 12
• Grade: 4 to 7
• Reading age: 9 to 12

Dinah Galloway--budding diva, enthusiastic gourmand and amateur detective--is back. This time she has taken to the high seas with a gig in the lounge of an Alaska-bound cruise ship. Also aboard are her mother and her older sister Madge, a moody professor of First Nations art, an elderly woman with romantic intentions toward an even older man, an aspiring thief with gooseberry-colored eyes, and a priceless Native mask that seems to be attracting far too much attention. Also on the ship is Talbot St. John, class heartthrob, with whom Dinah has a running feud. The mask is on its way to a museum to be returned to its ancestral home, but is stolen moments before its delivery. When Dinah is pushed into a glacial lake, the mystery becomes more dangerous and the pool of suspects deepens. As Dinah entertains the passengers and eats her way up the Northwest Coast, a number of potential suspects emerge.

Scottish-born and mystery-minded, Melanie Jackson is the author of Orca's Dinah Galloway Mystery Series for eight-to-11-year-olds, and young-adult suspensers such as The Big Dip and High Wire. Melanie, who lives in Vancouver with her husband Bart, is a business/advertising writer and editor. She's a member of the Vancouver Sun's Book Club, which reviews current novels in print and online. Melanie likes hiking, piano, English/Scottish history—and continually learning from the kids she works with as a writing mentor with the Vancouver School Board.

Melanie teaches a mystery unit to Grades 8 and 9 at two Vancouver secondary schools. She welcomes schools’ inquiries about her presentations for intermediate and secondary classes. For more information, e-mail Melanie or visit her blog.

Melanie Jackson's profile page

• Short-listed, Chocolate Lily Book Awards
• Short-listed, Silver Birch nominee
• Short-listed, Chocolate Lily nominee
• Nominated, Forest of Reading Silver Birch Fiction Award