[Lucy Ripken Mysteries 03] • X Dames

An old friend calls Lucy Ripken out of the blue to offer her a job writing for a new reality TV show: The X-Dames, an all-female extreme sports competition, starting with a surfing contest.

Harry is down in Florida digging a tunnel under a Wal-Mart chasing after some long lost drug money anyway, so Lucy has plenty of free time, and she jumps at the chance—the pay is great and means she gets to travel down to the colorful little beach town of Sayulita and get out on the waves again.

She even helps scout some of the talent herself: Marcia is a cool, young surfer girl from California who wants to be a painter. Winning the competition means she might be able to pay for art school.

But things take a sudden, nasty turn, when one of the contestants turns up dead. It looks like an accident, but Lucy has reason to believe it was only made to look that way, and she herself might be the next target. What was a reality show about surfing becomes a murder mystery instead, with Lucy and her friend investigating.