On the island of Manya in the South Atlantic lives Evelyn St. Leonards the repulsive writer of equally repulsive children's books. Together with a menage of relatives and servants,he lives in the Villa Pantiles which overlooks the town and harbour .
During a dinner party which both Miriam Birdseye and Natasha our two series characters attend,he is poisoned or just maybe shot.
Natasha is accused of this murder and Miriam sets out to prove her innocence.
There are,as is usual in this unique series a number of odd characters with equally odd names. We have Dymphna the Bee Woman. We have Fanshawe-Ptarmigan who is the sleepy and effeminate British consul and last but by no means least we have the truly horrible twin children Alice and Emma, Ugh !
As I think I have said before, you will either throughly enjoy these rather peculiar crime stories as I certainly do,or you will really hate them. There will be no middle ground I assure you. Do give them a try if you ever come across them. ( )