A courageous Pulitzer Prize-winning ex-reporter with an unparalleled talent for deduction, Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins has unraveled some murderous mysteries in the latter years of her long, event-filled life. But this time a killer has struck perilously close to Henrie O's heart.<P>Six years ago, Henrie O's beloved newspaperman husband Richard lost his life on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Now, on a brisk March morning, a chilling message has arrived by Priority Mail claiming Richard's fatal fall from a towering island cliff was no accident — it was murder. Following cryptic clues and her infallible instincts to a lush and verdant tropical Eden — and to the lavish mountaintop estate of wealthy matriarch Belle Ericcson, where Richard spent his final days — the determined sexagenarian sleuth becomes privy to terrible allegations of greed and jealousy, adultery and abuse...and of a mystery surrounding the kidnap-slaying of Belle's eldest child CeeCee. But now that her search for the truth has brought Henrie O to this lethal paradise where giant palm fronds hide evil deeds from inquisitive eyes, she may never be allowed to leave alive. Because the deaths did not begin or end with Richard Collins...and someone's dark and enduring homicidal passions have yet to be fully satisfied.

An accomplished master of mystery, Carolyn Hart is the author of six previous Henrie O novels. She is also the creator of the highly praised Death on Demand series. One of the founders of Sisters in Crime, she lives in Oklahoma City.