For Susan and Jed Henshaw and their friends Kathleen and Jerry Gordon, the tiny Caribbean resort called Compass Bay has everything. White sand, luxurious cottages, rum punches to die for--even a gorgeous unattached blonde ornamenting the premises.

But Kathleen and Jerry are having marital problems--and when the mysterious blonde turns up murdered, the cloud hanging over their little paradise grows black indeed. It turns out that the victim is the once-frumpy sister of Jerry's first wife. Many years ago, Susan, Jed, and Jerry had known her well, and the island police don't believe it's coincidence that she appeared at Compass Bay at the same time as her old friends. Nor does Susan, who shifts into investigative red alert--and finds a serpent in Eden, its fangs loaded with venom. . . .