Two roommates, Michael and Jimmy, are invited to visit Michael's elderly aunts, Martha and Barbara Farrington (the Skipper), at their isolated island mansion on Long Island Sound. Aunt Martha likes to play matchmaker, so has invited young Jude Blinshop, while Michael has brought along his own choice in female companionship, temperamental Gay Palmer. A terrible storm washes out the bridge, but the situation becomes dire when a guest is found murdered. Without a way to reach the mainland for help, suspicions arise: is there a hidden murderer on the island, or is someone in the house a killer? Family secrets must be unraveled before death strikes again . . .

"Everybody suspects everybody and so do you. There's action all over the lot and you keep right behind it, glancing over shoulders, peeping into rooms, finding corpses crammed in rooms, finding corpses crammed in to tell the story. There are no tricks, no atmosphere just for atmosphere's sake. It's a story you must have, if you lean toward this sort of thing at all." (1936 review)

Murder on the Bluff was published in 1936.