Sweet Dreams, Sweet Death

Norton weaves realistic professional procedure and unexpected emotional jolts into the otherwise erotic flavor of Key West, creating a debut that will seriously contend for all the "Best First" awards.-author Jeremiah Healy

P. K. Norton introduces a new heroine to mystery fans

Everybody loves Chef Garcia's key lime coconut petit fours. Some even say they're to die for. When four guests die at a wedding at the Beaux Reves Hotel, the famous petit fours are blamed.

Insurance investigator Amy Lynch flies from Boston to Key West to prepare for a wrongful death suit, her first trip to the island since her fiance died there three years ago.

Amy's investigation is beset with problems from the get-go. The hotel management is pushing for a quick settlement regardless of fault. The local police are calling the event a tragic accident. Most potential witnesses are missing, deceased or unhelpful. The ghost of Amy's fiance haunts her as she fends off pressures from all sides and copes with uncertainties concerning her new relationship.

She encounters death at every turn. The health inspector who monitored the hotel kitchen dies in an auto accident; the reporter who covered the incident for the local paper turns up drowned; even a homeless woman Amy befriends is found dead. And deceased wildlife crosses her path more than once.

As she forges on in the face of these obstacles, Amy wonders if Key West is the tropical paradise of the travel brochures or a petri dish of death.