A group of 15 high-powered executives for an international corporation are cycling down the Danube River as part of a team-building exercise. Accompanied by their families, friends and staff, they're having a good time. And why not? The Austrian scenery is beautiful, the villages and towns along the route are colourful, and the food provided by the accompanying cruise ship is spectacular.

Then, as the group gets ready for a new day in the picturesque community of Dürnstein, there's a scream from the nearby ruins of the castle where Richard the Lionheart was once held captive.

The tranquility of the trip is gone.

One of the passengers has been found dead. The police believe it was an accident, but Paul Burke, who is working as a tour guide on the trip, has his doubts.

And then someone else dies. This time, it wasn't an accident.

The police begin checking into the murder and it quickly becomes clear that the killer is going to be difficult to identify. The police certainly don't want help from outsiders, especially Burke, who has helped solve mysteries back home along the French Riviera. But that doesn't deter Burke from poking around.

Deception on the Danube is D'Arcy Kavanagh's third mystery featuring Paul Burke, an ex-pro cyclist from Montréal, Canada who works as a blogger/columnist for a newspaper chain along the Riviera. Once lazy and working on an alcohol problem, Burke is a different man, someone who can't let sudden death go unchallenged, even if it means potentially putting himself in harm's way.