There was a ghastly murder in New York City, and Mark Twain’s address was in the dead man’s pocket. But even more alarming was that Twain had just received a message sent by an old friend from his riverboat days—and the handwriting matched the note found on the corpse.

So with his new secretary, Wentworth Cabot, Twain caught a steamboat bound for New Orleans. On board were all matter of people—wealthy tourists and old river rats, literary amateurs and high-stakes gamblers…and a determined killer whose only goal was to bring Mark Twain’s celebrated career to a stop!