Ugly Duckels by Kit Stokes

This melodramatic suspense tale is about a grotesque killer, Veronica Dean, a twenty-year-old woman born with a birthmark disfiguring half her face. She contracts to kill a priest in Honolulu in 1999 at the behest of S.T.A.R. [Stop the Arms Race], which threatens to explode a nuclear device somewhere in the country unless Congress acts to stop production of fissionable material. Veronica, unstable mentally, agrees to the killing to see if God will let her do it. When He sends no sign, she kills the priest, making her a triple killer. Arthur Cowan, a history professor, is convinced that she can lead him to the bomb set to go off in four days somewhere in the islands. He links up with her but finds her mind goes in and out of rational thought. His brother Mark, is law enforcement on the islands, chases Veronica as the killer of the priest. Discovering Arthur accompanying her, Mark concludes he is a member of S.T.A.R. and chases both. A reluctant hero, Arthur is unable to convince the police of the desperate need to find the bomb, must do it himself until single-handedly he finds it on a schooner off Waikiki. But before he can disarm it, Veronica forces him off the boat and with Willington on board sails out to sea, where the two are the sole victims of the blast at sea.