About the Author

Merryn Allingham was born into an army family and spent her childhood moving around the UK and abroad. It gave her itchy feet, and in her twenties she escaped an unloved secretarial career to work as cabin crew and see the world. The arrival of marriage, children and cats meant a more settled life in the south of England, where she has lived ever since. It also gave her the opportunity to go back to 'school' and eventually teach at university. Merryn has always loved books that bring the past to life, so when she began writing herself the novels had to be historical. She finds the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries fascinating to research and has written extensively on these periods in the Daisy's War trilogy and the Summerhayes novels. All her work contains mystery and suspense as well as romance, so it's not surprising that with the Tremayne Mysteries Series, she has gone completely over to the dark side!

Reviews

The contrast of the 1950s glamour of the top set of Malfuego's social scene against the poverty of the less fortunate local population is stark indeed and it makes for a tense backdrop. You are never quite sure what is at the bottom of the whole dangerous mess until very near the end of the story, and there are plenty of red herrings along the way. The whole story is reminiscent of a mix of the charm of a Death in Paradise mystery, mixed with the peril of a James Bond thriller.
I loved this book. It kept me turning the pages long after I'd planned to stop reading, and I'm looking forward to the next in this great series.
I was trying to go slowly and relish this, but I found myself galloping through it, loving the setting and the characters and letting the plot take me along. Great descriptive language - I can feel the heat of the Caribbean island.
The 1950s are delicately evoked with their sensitivities and the sharp contrast between privilege and poverty.
I loved this next book in the Tremayne saga. Set on a volcanic Caribbean island, it is full of drama, drug smuggling, family secrets, political instability.