Fleeing the gathering storm-clouds of war in 1939, a party of British débutantes are shipwrecked on an uncharted tropical island, where they meet a distinguished French scientist claiming descent from the Marquis de Sade. But who is the Marquis de Sade? And what devil's brew is his great-grandson cooking far from the eyes of the world? Does he mean to use his beautiful and not wholly unexpected young guests as ingredients? In her ninth Nexus book, Wendy Swanscombe gets right to the bottom of all these darkly delicious mysteries.