The Christmas voyage / Deirdre Purcell.

It is Christmas on the Santa Clara cruise liner, and as the old ship sets sail from Barcelona, dramas big and small are unfolding within her graceful confines. There's Kitty Golden, beautiful ex-model and wife of New York financier Saul Abelson, some 25 years her senior. Each has their own reason to be there - but while Saul feels lost in love for his young wife, Kitty has her sights set elsewhere. Dubliner Mary Dunne is on board with no less than eight members of her boisterous Irish family. They're all there to enjoy themselves, but for Mary, the stakes are higher as she has her own private - and nerve-wracking - mission to attend to. "Retired" evangelicals Susie and Jay Tanner cause mumblings to stir with their unorthodox behaviour, but finding out what's behind it proves enchantingly elusive to some observers. Cool-headed novelist Roxy Smith observes it all. Intent on finding the perfect plot for her difficult second novel, she imagines there's no better place for inspiration than upon a cruise liner. And she just might be right...