Dead in the water

In Dead in the Water, Stone has barely arrived in St. Marks, a lovely Caribbean island nation, on a sailing vacation when something very strange happens: a beautiful young woman sails into the harbor, entirely alone on a large yacht. Before long she is under the intense scrutiny of local authorities in the very considerable person of Sir Winston Sutherland, the minister of justice. The problem is, though she arrived alone, she had departed the other side of the Atlantic in the company of her husband, a well-known writer, who is no longer in evidence.
Evidence is what fascinates Stone Barrington, and before many pages have been turned, he is all that stands between the apparently innocent Allison Manning and the patently evil Sir Winston, whose motives are unclear. What is clear is that the St. Marks system of justice bears little resemblance to the American courts to which Stone is accustomed and that his smallest error could prove fatal to his client.
Inextricably caught in a swirling storm of island madness and murder, made worse by a hurricane of sensational press coverage, Stone can hardly find the time to indulge his usual romantic inclinations, but he learns that, even under the intense illumination of a Caribbean sun, nothing is what it seems to be, and no one can be trusted.