Lucifer's Ark by Simon P. Clark
The Volsparr routinely sails to a mining community in the Baltic. This time it carries families over to visit loved ones who must work through Christmas to meet a deadline - one which will determine whether the company survives. Unknown to the passengers, the ship also carries a secret cargo. Stateless criminals, who have committed the most horrendous of crimes, are transported to jails where incarceration is cheap, human rights non-existent, and where no one will ever question the convicts' fate.Tanya is traveling to visit her fiance. She's already reconciled herself to this being an unusual Christmas, but, aboard this ship, fortunes are at stake and life becomes the cheapest commodity of all. Tanya Rhone faces a personal battle of epic proportions to not only save her life, but to prevent her death becoming a global event.