Ruby's thorn-in-her-side, Essie Sue Margolis, conducts a survey of the Temple Rita faithful and finds their new rabbi, Kevin Kapstein, is not doing well. In order to boost his approval rating, Essie Sue plans a Caribbean cruise on the aptly named Bargain II, a boat captained by her cousin, Horatio Goldberg.

Ruby is not planning on going, but when she wins the Temple's raffle and gets a free ride, friends convince her to take a vacation from their small Texas town. Some vacation. Ruby hasn't even reached her room when the ship's lecturer, a local professor, dies in her arms of an apparent heart attack.

Unfortunately for Ruby, the cruise goes go on and she has to help Kevin with the lectures. Fortunately for Ruby, Kevin has the professor's laptop and his files. Kevin also gets some assistance from Ed Levinger, a handsome reporter from San Antonio.

Ruby finds the professor's files fascinating, almost as fascinating as Ed Levinger; she especially likes his files on Conversos-Jewish families that converted to Catholicism during the Spanish Inquisition. Ruby recognizes some of the family names mentioned in the files as those of fellow cruise passengers.

She doesn't think too much about the files until someone hits her over the head - literally. Then Ruby begins to wonder what it is that she has or knows that would make someone want to hurt her. She is also not sure who to trust, she knows Ed is very interested in the professor's files, but she doesn't know why.

Don't Cry for Me, Hot Pastrami is an energetic and good-humored read. Ruby is a smart and funny heroine. This cruise from hell is a great backdrop for a murder mystery.

Just when you think nothing more can go wrong, it does. And Ruby spends a lot of her time trying to find a decent meal and avoiding the always annoying Essie Sue and her lothario cousin, Horatio. Good mystery reading fun.

--Judith Flavell