The book pretty much starts off with Ann and Rolf having lunch at a restaurant.

I don't want to say I liked this book due to the fact that it was EXTREMLY annoying, but it wasn't a bad read, story wise. Not one of the prolific author's bests, by any means. The meta-nature of that cross-over among pseudonyms is the most interesting thing about this novel: thankfully, the detective doesn't behave according to offensive period stereotypes.

This is where the novel gets seriously odd, as Wong is an amateur detective created by Ross in another pseudonym. Finally, the couple engages the services of Mei Wong, an Indian expatriate of Chinese descent, who works as an interior decorator but solves mysteries. Many repetitive arguments follow, together with references to the gloomy brownstone the couple occupies. Ann, thinly drawn and with no discernible personality beyond nervous terror, believes the communications are ghostly Rolf, an unappealingly unsympathetic playwright, refuses to accept the existence of the supernatural. Spectral sightings turn into harassing phone calls from the first Mrs. More flimsy, harmless hysterics from the prolific author of Dark at Noon, Chanters Chase, etc.Married just over a year, Ann and Rolf Martin receive a blast from the past when they think they see Rolf's first wife at a restaurant-which would be odd, since Mary supposedly died in a plane crash. And there's a sloshy denouement, with the evil one telling all while treading shark-filled waters. While the doughty lass pokes around and pulls off some heroic feats-she's an excellent swimmer-and agitates with love/hate throes via Marcus, suspicion wavers over a jovial doctor and a local plantation owner. Someone else, then, must be responsible for: a ship lured by subterfuge onto a dangerous reef the thievery of salvaged goods what turns out to have been Julia's murder two mysterious deaths and several attempted murders, including Marina's. Marina's host, Marcus Granville, to whom she is a temporary ward, is of the glowering persuasion, and he wears a black eye patch-so veteran readers of the genre will eliminate him immediately from the villain sweepstakes. Young Marina, sent from London to the Caribbean isle of Antilla to live with the godmother of dearest friend Julia (who has recently committed suicide), is of the ''coltish'' breed of period-suspense heroines.

Chanters Chase by Jill Tattersall