Newly departed Crystal Ball has her hands full investigating her own murder, but she shifts focus to her great-grandmother's disappearance in order to recover a missing family heirloom in time for her niece's wedding.

At first, Harlow Grayson refuses to take part in Crystal's crazy scheme aboard a resurrected riverboat with iffy connections. But the lure of an entire month free of Crystal's ghostly presence should they succeed reels her in like clickbait.

When Harlow activates Crystal's multicolored pen, she maneuvers between the physical and ethereal worlds and discovers not all is as it seems. Against the backdrop of 1920s glitz and glamor, cracks in the Starlight Riverboat's makeup are showing.

Can the sleuths solve the mystery and escape before things get out of hand?

This mystery short side jaunt occurs during the first Ask Crystal Ball holiday novella, For Santa's Sake, Harlow! and was first published in the Spirits in the Water short story anthology by Untethered Realms in 2017.