Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for and advance copy of this to review.

Mustique’s only policeman, handsome Oxford graduate Solomon Nile, is desperate to find missing American heiress Amanda before a tropical storm blows over the island, destroying property and cutting the islanders off from the rest of the world. A series of strangely marked artefacts and mysterious goings on make him and his elderly aristocratic side kick Lady Vee sure that this is not a voluntary disappearance.

I had read reviews of Anne Glenconner’s memoir which praised her candour and spirit, and I was interested in this, her debut novel, published well into her ninth decade. She knows Mustique well, as her husband bought it in the 1950s, and developed it into the resort for the rich and famous its modern reputation rests on. Glenconner was a lady in waiting to Princess Margaret for many years, and gave the Princess a house and land on Mustique as a wedding gift.

Lady Vee was a lady in waiting to Princess Margaret and once owned the island with her mercurial developer husband Jasper. She still mourns the Princess, and is back on the island to prepare for a party for her young ward’s 21st birthday. She knows everyone on the island.
Vee is so very lightly fictionalised I wonder why she isn’t called Anne. No opportunity is wasted to highlight how wise and wonderful she is, as neighbour, friend, employer, wife, However she’s undoubtedly resilient and resourceful, and I love that in a heroine. The sense of place is strong, as you’d expect when someone knows the island so well.

I’m not surprised by the reliance on the Royal connection reminiscences even though they’re not my cup of tea - they undoubtedly make the book more saleable.

This mystery has all the right ingredients for a beach read - exotic location, cast of easily recognisable characters, budding romance, money and corruption- but the recipe doesn’t work.

The characterisation is thin, the plot as ropey and full of holes as an old fishing net.
Lady Vee is the most plausible character and I wouldn’t bet against a second in the series, this time set in Glenconner’s home county of Norfolk.

As Anne Glenconnor reminds us a few times, she was lady in waiting and friend of Princess Margaret, and a frequent visitor to Mustique. The main character is obviously based on herself and there is some name-dropping! The story is not particularly exciting and the characters are not very well developed, so it is difficult to feel any emotion for them. However, hats off to her for writing a novel in her eighties!

Oh dear. I’m afraid this just isn’t a very good book. I’m disappointed because I really enjoyed the author’s autobiography, but this is just not up to the same standard.

The main character is a thinly veiled fictionalised version of Lady Glenconner herself - which will be obvious to anyone who has read her autobiography - which just makes for slightly strange reading. It’s immediately obvious who the murderer is from the first couple of chapters and the constant name dropping is just really grating.

Such a shame.

Death in Paradise meets Tatler!
This is a beach read - read it quickly and enjoy the ride, but don't think too deeply about it as the plot is rather thin and the characters not really credible. While quite enjoying the mystery, I found the constant name-dropping annoying and did not feel it added at all to the story.

This is a standard murder mystery albeit set in the more unusual setting of Mustique where a storm is awaited. The island is owned by an aristocratic couple with a strong sense of entitlement who operate a dated class system on the island. The frequent references to the late Princess Margaret who indulged herself there are irrelevant except to boost the self importance of the lead character who had been a lady in waiting. Solving the crime falls to the new young detective sergeant whose long term family connections with the island would normally rule him out as the investigating officer! The perpetrator is fairly obvious but it all ends satisfactorily.