Customer Reviews

Touch-Me-Not: A Martha's Vineyard Mystery (Martha's Vineyard Mysteries)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In his office at Watts Electrical Supply in Oak Bluffs, electrician LeRoy Watts uses a taser on his former assistant Jerry Sparks when the latter had the gall to threaten to blackmail him. Jerry crumbled to the office floor dead. LeRoy knows his nine year old twin sons Zeke and Jared will be coming by once baseball practice ends, so he places the corpse in a closet with plans to dispose of the body later.

After the kids leave, LeRoy removes the stiff from his office closet and places the corpse in a book storage shed at the West Tisbury library. Also at the library are the "mathematical" knitters doing Moebius strips and more. Their current project is a coral reef quilt to raise awareness of global warming. Knitter Maron asks nonagenarian Deputy Sheriff Victoria Trumbull for help with an obscene serial phone caller; and boat splicer Emily Cameron wants to know what happened to her boyfriend Jerry. Victoria is back in the middle of a murder mystery.

The latest ninety-two years young Victoria Trumbull police procedural (see Death and Honesty) is a wonderful cozy that uses Martha's Vineyard as an idyllic backdrop for mayhem and for family issues caused when the middle generation arrives to help her daughter cope with her elderly mother. At times the story line turns amusing for instance with LeRoy's efforts to dispose of the body only to have his family and later three law enforcement officials (including the heroine) visit him with none aware of Jerry's fate; mindful of Hitchcock's comedic The Trouble With Harry. Cynthia Riggs is at the top of her game with this strong Trumbull entry.

Harriet Klausner

Cynthia Riggs is another goodie.....I love her books and all the characters in her books......their's always a murder and the deputy sheriff who is 92 (yes, 92)grin. She helps the woman sheriff because she knows everyone and hears the gossip that goes on and on. If there is trouble she is not to far away to help solve them and the town people.

The dedicated mathematical knitters at work in Cynthia Riggs' newest Martha's Vineyard mystery find out that people aren't always who they say they are or what they seem to be. Two of these folks bring their baggage from America to the blessed isle and pose a problem for others. It's too bad this pair ever stepped off the ferry. Thankfully, Detective Victoria Trumbull gets to the bottom of this barrel of trouble before too much damage is done.

The surprisingly pleasant aspect of this story is the return of Victoria's daughter Amelia to the Vineyard. I was hoping she would have stayed off the ferry too, but she ends up being one of the good guys and is not the threat to Victoria's and granddaughter Elizabeth's loving home that I feared. She actually fits right in.

Touch-Me-Not is not Riggs' very best effort but it is a very enjoyable read. It would be hard, for instance, to top the tale of the West Tisbury Grackle in The Paperwhite Narcissus. You won't be disappointed if you do touch this one.

Protagonist Victoria Trumbull returns in the latest Martha's Vineyard novel by Cynthia Riggs titled, Touch-Me-Not. Three generations of strong Trumbull women are featured in this novel, along with an interesting set of characters and a plot that draws on everything Victoria has learned over her ninety-two years. Although Victoria's daughter arrived on the Island expecting to move Victoria into some form of assisted living, it is Victoria who provides the needed assistance. Victoria and her granddaughter have a warm relationship and it's unclear who takes more care of whom. The theme of the novel involves stalkers and the havoc they wreak. A group of mathematical knitters provide lots of local color. Any reader who likes a simple mystery with compelling characters will find a lot to enjoy in this novel.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)