Right from the Gecko

Informationen zum Autor Cynthia Baxter Klappentext Surf's up . . . and so are the stakes when veterinarian and amateur sleuth Jessica Popper escapes to the land of hula! hibiscus! and geckos for a professional conference. The last time she and boyfriend Nick Burby touched down on the island of Hawaii! Nick caused a volcanic eruption when he unexpectedly popped The Question to commitment-phobic Jess. But this trip proves just as dangerous when Jess befriends an ambitious young reporter whose body later washes up on the sand . . . and someone thinks Jess holds the clue to the killer's motive. There's no end of suspects among the exotic flora and fauna! from the victim's journalistic rivals and a mystery boyfriend to an eccentric beachcomber and a governor's aide with ties to a controversial biotech firm bringing progress to paradise. One of them is a killer with the chameleon-like ability to stay hidden—and if Jessica doesn't uncover hula-dunnit in time! she'll be saying aloha . . . permanently. Chapter One "When a cat adopts you there is nothing to be done about it except put up with it until the wind changes."—T. S. Eliot Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has turned on the seat-belt sign. Please return to your seats and fasten your seat belts, as we expect to encounter some turbulence. . . ." I looped my thumb under my seat belt to double-check it, then glanced over at Nick, who was crammed into the seat beside me. Even the flight attendant's warning hadn't motivated him to look up from his guidebook. Then again, he'd pretty much buried his nose in the fat paperback the moment our plane had taken off from Los Angeles. The only time he'd come up for air had been complimentary beverage time, when he'd ordered pineapple juice after expressing his extreme disappointment that mango juice wasn't on the menu. "The Penny-Pinching Traveler's Guide to Maui says there's a great snorkeling spot right behind the Royal Banyan Hotel," he announced, passing along his eighteen-hundredth travel tip since we'd boarded the plane four and a half hours earlier. "And you can go on a sunrise bike ride on Haleakala, the volcanic crater, that's a thirty-eight-mile ride downhill–" "Sir?" the flight attendant interrupted. "Please fasten your seat belt. We're expecting things to get a bit rocky." "Sorry." Nick pulled his seat belt low and tight across his lap, nestling it between a pair of khaki cargo pants and a black T-shirt he'd assured me would be replaced by the brightest, most outrageous Hawaiian shirt he could find as soon as we landed. "I'm glad you're so excited about this trip," I commented. "Are you kidding?" Nick exclaimed. "Ten days in Hawaii is the best possible antidote to law school. After the total nightmare of exam week, I need a few days of snorkeling on some fabulous beach with a mai tai in one hand and a papaya in the other." I didn't bother to point out that drinking mai tais and snorkeling at the same time probably wouldn't work all that well. Or that, complaining aside, Nick had managed an A in every one of the courses he'd taken during his first semester at the Brookside University School of Law. Not when I was as happy as he was to be embarking on a ten-day vacation on the Hawaiian island of Maui, combining the American Veterinary Medical Association's annual conference with what I hoped would be a romantic getaway. I was equally pleased that I'd come up with the idea of giving him a plane ticket for Christmas. True, flying nearly six thousand miles from Long Island to Maui was a bit of a luxury, one that not every vet I knew had opted to indulge in. Suzanne Fox, for example, a close friend from vet school whose practice was on the island's East End. Of course, she was still recovering from a brush with the law she'd had a few months earlier. Frankly, I didn't blame her for needing time to get over the trauma o...

Product details

• Authors: Cynthia Baxter
• Publisher: Bantam Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 27.03.2007
• EAN: 9780553588446
• ISBN: 978-0-553-58844-6
• No. of pages: 352
• Dimensions: 105 mm x 175 mm x 23 mm
• Series: Reigning Cats and Dogs Mystery; Reigning Cats and Dogs Mystery; Reigning Cats & Dogs Mysteries
• Subject: Fiction > Suspense