Every summer, the vacation island of Nausset hires a temporary cop for the rush of tourists. This time they drew a wild card. Jim Hawkins, the "Parking Warden," stumbles upon the bizarre Viking suicide of a local property developer.
The incident makes no ripple in the summer insanity of Nausset, the most fashionable beach property in the world. Fading aristocrats sit up all night at the windows of their wooden castles, while endless, drunken tourists stream by below. The ferries run day and night. Land prices creep higher--like the thermometer--and always the drinks are served by...