This play is intended for middle school or high school performers. Con-artist drifter Curley stows away on the early 1900s Mississippi River Paddlewheeler “The Mississippi Belle,” where her brother serves as a steward. The Belle may be cursed by the mummy brought aboard by Professor Julius T. Mayberry and his students. Shortly in their cruise to St. Louis, another professor – PJ Ricketts – is murdered, and his body and the killer are missing! Famed Detective Eloise Stout, a passenger aboard the Belle, declares her intent not to investigate the murder. She is on vacation, after all. Wealthy Socialite passenger Melinda Coates-Robertson decides to give away a million-dollar prize to the passenger who can solve the murder, so as toavoid any embarrassing police entanglement that might threaten her social status. And this is where Curley comes up with a devious plan: a master of disguise who can copy anyone’s handwriting if she sees it once, decides to adopt the alias of “Abel Underwood,” a southern gentleman. Curley will plant evidence framing “Mister Underwood” for the murder so that Curley can turn him in and win the prize! What threatens to undo Curley’s plan? That Melinda’s teenage daughter Violet falls in love with Mister Underwood… …and and Detective Stout believes this whole thing may not be a murder mystery at all