A LEGACY FROM TENERIFE

Lorna Anderson, a Canadian widow with an alleged claim on the estate of heirless Peter Fraser, suffers a fatal, heart attack when her hotel room is mysteriously ransacked. So auditor-sleuth Jonathan Gaunt of the Remembrancer's Officer (A Problem in Prague, etc.) teams up with the dead woman's niece to learn more about the late Peter Fraser--or at least about Hispan, the Spanish real-estate company he worked for (in nebulous yet profitable ways). And, after the niece suffers a vicious attack, the sleuthing-trail leads Gaunt to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, where he meets up with Hispan's suavely powerful owner Paul Weber. Is Weber looking for some secret hoard stashed away by Fraser? What is Hispan's real racket? Gaunt, ostensibly on the scene in order to sell Fraser's yacht, answers all the questions, of course--in another solid Webster blend of local color, fast action (lots of violence on land and sea), and intriguing scam.