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Murder Under the Sun

Danger in Paradise

Steve Allen
Murder in Hawaii. Kensington, 1999.
The Hawaiian escapade of Steverino and his wife Jayne Meadows turns into a deadly real-life adventure.

Simon Brett
The Body on the Beach. Berkley, 2000.
Carole and her dog, Gulliver, discover a body on the beach. Later, the police are unable to find it and dismiss her as a befuddled, middle-aged woman.

Edna Buchanan
You Only Die Twice. Morrow, 2001.
A body found murdered on Miami beach is identified as that of a woman supposedly murdered ten years ago by her millionaire husband, who is just weeks from execution for the crime, posing an interesting story for the man who found the body--reporter Britt Montero.

Carol Higgins Clark
Burned. Scribner, 2005.
L. A. investigator Regan Reilly is enlisted to help solve a crime when a dead body washes ashore on the beach of Waikiki.

Douglas Corleone
One Man's Paradise. Minotaur, 2010.
Kevin Corvelli, a Manhattan defense lawyer, relocates to hawaii after his retirement is ruined due to a failed murder case. There he meets a law student who has been wrongfully accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, and he decides to help prove him innocent.

Philip Craig
Death on a Vineyard Beach. Scribner, 1996.
Ex-cop J. W. Jackson investigates the attempted murder of former gangster Luciano Marcus.

Max Allan Collins
Carnal Hours. Dutton, 1994.
In 1943 Nassau, a wealthy man who has hired Chicago pi Nate Heller to dig up some dirt on his detested son-in-law, turns up dead.

Lynda Curnyn
Killer Summer. Red Dress Ink.
For Zoe, Sage and Nick, spending the summer relaxing in a shared beach house on Fire Island seems like a good idea...at least until the body turns up on the beach.

Michael Dibdin
And Then You Die. Pantheon, 2002.
While recuperating from an assassination attempt at a beach resort in Tuscany, and waiting to testify in an anti-Mafia trial, Aurelio Zen finds that murder does not take vacations.

Lee Goldberg
Diagnosis Murder: The Past Tense. Signet, 2005.
It's startling enough for Dr. mark Sloan to find a body on the beach outside his home. But what makes the situation even more bizarre is that the dead woman is dressed like a mermaid and autopsy reveals a digital memory card secreted within a capsule inside her stomach. Fifth in a series based upon the popular TV show of the same name.

Heather Graham
Hurricane Bay. Mira, 2002.
In this sexy thriller, p. i. Dane Whitelaw searches for a serial killer bent on framing him for murder when the body of a woman he used to date is found on his private island. By the same author: The Island (2006).

James W. Hall
Tropical Freeze. Delacorte, 1994.
While searching for clues in the murder of his girlfriend, Dick Thorn uncovers an environmental disaster waiting to happen.

Lyn Hamilton
The Moai Murders. BPC, 2005.
Their vacation on Easter Island turns out to anything for Toronto antiques dealer Lara McClintoch and her friend Moira Meller when an adventurer filming a documentary theorizing the origins of the island's famed huge carved heads is killed. Lara is dubious of the police conclusion that the man was accidentally trampled by wild horses.

Lee Harris
The Labor Day Murder. FGM, 1998.
Island old-timers are stunned by the shooting death of Blue Harbor's popular fire chief.

Carolyn Hart
Death in Paradise. Avon, 1998.
Henrie O travels to the Pacific paradise estate of Belle Ericcson to unmask her husband's assassin.

J. J. Henderson
Murder on Naked Beach. CDS, 2006.
Fed up with winter in Manhattan, photographer Lucy Ripken manages to get herself included in a press junket to a posh resort in Jamaica, hoping to get in some r&r after the photo shoot. When one of her traveling companions is found dead in the hot tub, it is assumed to be a heart attack. Lucy thinks otherwise and she is soon tangled up in a massive drug smuggling deal and with a handsome undercover DEA agent.

Alex Kava
Damaged. Doubleday, 2010.
While preparing for a Category 5 hurricane in Pensacola Beach, Maggie O'Dell, a criminal profiler, is sent to investigate when a large fishing cooler filled with body parts is found.

Paul Kemprecos
Death in Deep Water. Doubleday, 1992.
Cape Cod pi Aristotle Socarides tries to determine if a trainer was killed by a whale or murdered.

Penny Mickelbury
Paradise Interrupted. S&S, 2001.
Carole Ann Gibson travels to a Caribbean Island to assist a newly-formed government and finds herself in a hotbed of corruption and conspiracy.

Brent Monahan
The Jekyll Island Club. Minotaur, 2000.
In 1899, a murder of a member of the exclusive Jeykyll Island Club pits a local sheriff in search of the truth against J.P. Morgan.

James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
Swimsuit. LB, 2009.
When supermodel Kim Daniels disappears from a swimsuit photo shoot in Hawaii, L.A. cop-turned-author Ben Hawkins travels to the islands to help find her.

Carmen Posadas
The Last Resort. RH, 2005.
In this Agatha Christie-like story, things are looking pretty bleak for Rafael Molinet. Now that his mother has died, he's both bankrupt and friendless. And so he decides to end it all at L'Hirondelle d'Or, a luxurious Moroccan spa for the well-heeled. But before he can do the deed, he becomes interested in a recent choking death of a playboy, which may or may not have been murder.

Marissa Piesman
Close Quarters. Delacorte, 1994.
A Fire Island shore in Davis Park is the scene of the crime. Could Jonathan, the man of Nina Fishman's dreams, be the killer?

Lawrence Sanders
McNally's Secret. Putnam's Sons, 1992.
Archy McNally, who caters to the wealthy & powerful of Palm Beach, is hired to retrieve some priceless stamps. As usual when McNally is involved, mayhem ensues.

Nancy Tesler
Sharks, Jellyfish and Other Deadly Things. Dell, 1998.
Biofeedback specialist Carrie Carlin flies to the Florida Keys to help a friend whose husband has disappeared.

Valerie Wolzien
Death in a Beach Chair. Fawcett, 2004.
Kathleen and Jerry are having marital problems, so a trip to a tiny Caribbean resort with their friends Susan and Jed Henshaw seems just the thing. Then a mysterious blonde--who turns out to be the once-frumpy sister of Jerry’s first wife--turns up murdered. Believing the dead woman's presence on the island was no coincidence, amateur sleuth Susan (An Old Faithful Murder, Death at a Discount, etc.) starts her own investigation.

Stuart Woods
Orchid Beach. HarCol, 1998.
Holly Barker, deputy chief of police in Orchid Beach, Florida, investigates when a colleague and another associate are gunned down.

Dorian Yeager
Summer Will End. St. M., 1996.
The seaside village of Dovkey, NH, has a problem--the tourists are dwindling at a faster rate than their dollars, and there's nothing natural about it.

SHORT STORIES

And The Dying Is Easy : All-New Tales Of Summertime Suspense, ed. by Joseph Pittman & Annette Riffle.

compiled by Linda Bova; updated by Lisa Ferzola

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