PERIL UNDER THE PALMS

by K.K. Beck ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 7, 1989

It's back to the 1920's here--in a disappointing new adventure for Iris Cooper and her sometime boyfriend, reporter Jack Clancey (Death in a Deck Chair, 1984). Iris and her easygoing Aunt Hermione have arrived in Hawaii on the cruise-ship Malolo, with Aunt Hermione acting as chaperone for Iris's heiress school-chum Antoinette Caulfield and fianc‚ Walter Carlson. Once ashore, Iris becomes confidante to a troubled Antoinette, who lives with a domineering grandmother and a frail, secretive grandfather. Her mother, unseen for decades, seems to be making a reappearance, however. Then Jack turns up unexpectedly, just in time to discover--with Iris--the murdered body of fellow cruise-passenger Viola Blodgett, an upright Bostonian researching Hawaiian roots for the family history she was writing. Meanwhile, there'll be strange visitors at the Caulfield mansion; a mysterious woman in white; a series of ransacked rooms; exploration of old birth and death records; a trip by Jack to a leper colony: a second murder and an attempted third before it's all sorted out--by Iris, of course, in one of those tired all-suspects-together confrontations. Campy, trite, and bloodless, with an obvious villain and a clutch of charmless characters, this effort is sheer coasting for its talented author.

Pub Date: July 7, 1989

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Walker

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1989

Categories: FICTION