Murdered by Nature

The death of a mysterious stranger puts Inspector Alvarez back on the case in “a delightful and entertaining series that never seems to lose a step” (Booklist).
 
Inspector Enrique Alvarez of the Majorca police department is in a good mood, for once. The October sun is shining, no one interrupted his mid-morning nap, and his irascible boss—Superior Chief Salas—is on holiday. But his new-found optimism soon leads to disaster. In no time at all, Alvarez is mired down by a seemingly impossible task—identifying a man drowned in the bay, who it quickly transpires may not have been drowned at all.
 
When the autopsy report reveals that Colin Kerr was poisoned by prussic acid, Inspector Alvarez fears that he has a murder on his hands. The scant clues lead to Laura Ashton, whose fabulously wealthy husband recently drowned in a sailing accident. During his month-long stay on the Spanish resort island, Kerr paid a visit to the Ashtons’ villa, Son Dragó. Inspector Alvarez hates to intrude on a widow’s grief, but he can’t help but notice the almond trees on the grounds of Son Dragó—almonds, Alvarez knows, can be used to make prussic acid. Even more unsettling: Laura Ashton’s palpable anxiety over the disposition of her husband’s will. What’s got her so worried? And what business did Kerr have with Charles Ashton?
 
As one disturbing question leads to another, Inspector Alvarez wishes he were sipping brandy rather than solving a mystery. But the wheels of justice never stop turning, even in paradise.