Private Investigator, Nick McCord, suggested that he and Monica Barnhart, his girlfriend, get married on a Great Lake Cruise ship. She was excited by the idea and asked her best friend, Pamela Pierce, to be her Maid of Honor. Nick asked Tom Walker, a long time friend, to be his Best Man. They were all looking forward to a great time.Everything was going well until a man was brutally murdered on the ship. Captain Klausen knew Nick was a detective and dragged Nick into the investigation of the man's death. The victim was not the man the cabin was registered to, and the man it was registered to was not on the ship. Several pieces of jewelry had been stolen from a museum and were found at the murder scene. While Nick was trying to find out the identity of the victim and how the jewelry got on the ship when another man was murdered. As the investigation progressed, Nick suddenly found himself looking for an old adversary. Death on the Lakes is the fifth in the series of Nick McCord Mysteries.