SWEET SEDUCTION AND THE THIRD MERMAID
Catherine Olsen

When Isabelle Harrison, a successful portrait painter, agrees
reluctantly to leave London and accompany her duplicitous husband,
Dominic, to the Seychelles, where he has been appointed as British
High Commissioner, she knows her marriage may not survive but is
unaware that the real risk may be to her life.

Once there she is wooed by the celebrated beaches; the lush rain
forests; the sea which alternates between the colour of a peacock's
breast and the pure pale green of a peridot; the fruit bats that swoop
across marmalade-tinted sunsets; the rose-streaked sunrises; and the
way the mangoes hang, fat and lazy, like Christmas decorations from
massive trees.

But her feelings of euphoria quickly fade when she discovers
that her two predecessors drowned in suspicious circumstances – the
'Two Little Mermaids', as the popular press calls them – and her fears
grow with the discovery that the official residence, while
spectacular, holds dark and menacing secrets.

Roselina, the seemingly sweet, dowdy cook, is struggling to
understand the gaps that appear in her memory. And what is her link
with Selina, local nightclub entertainer and seasoned seductress, who
has the new High Commissioner in her sights? Will a 'Third Mermaid' be
found dead? And if so, will it be Isabelle?