The Necklace of Peril — Ruth Burnett

Fall in the old town of Saint Augustine, Florida, was hot, and it felt even warmer to young Victoria Allen, a young Canadian actress-nurse who had been recruited from her native Toronto to star in a historical play entitled The Hate Necklace. Based on the twenty-year period when Britain ruled Florida, the play depicted the life of the daughter of the British governor and her romance with the Spanish pirate, Sebastian. A gorgeous sapphire necklace--one that complemented so perfectly Victoria's fragile beauty--was crucial to the plot.

But for some reason, someone does not want the play to go on. Or is it that he does not want Victoria to be in the play? The young lawyer who had introduced the city to the cast members threatens her; wood almost strikes her from the stage scaffolding; a cast member is poisoned.

Howell Leonard, a handsome young math professor whose family has a large plantation of orange trees and other crops, befriends the lovely young actress, and together they try to puzzle out the problem.