There's more than one reason the new West Tisbury police chief officially made 92-year old Victoria Trumbull her deputy. For one thing, Victoria knows just about everything about everyone in town, and a lot about the rest of the Martha's Vineyard year-round population as well. Not to mention their ancestors. Victoria may be afflicted with the usual aches and pains that descend on nonagenarians (she has a cutoff shoe to accommodate her bunion, and a stout stick to help her on her walks across the fields and in the woods). But she is as sharp and as sharpeyed as the proverbial tack. So it's not odd that when Victoria is the only one who notices something amiss among the gravestones of the West Tisbury cemetery, the chief listens.
Something is indeed amiss. Responding to a request by presumed relatives in the Midwest to disinter a coffin for reburying elsewhere, things go wrong from the start. The driver of the hearse coming to collect the coffin disappears during the Island ferry trip in a rainstorm. Other deaths - some of them irrefutably murder, the others suspicious - follow. And when as a last measure the coffin is found, dug up and opened, it does not contain the expected body. Insult upon injury, the coffin itself disappears.
Meanwhile, the available for rent bedroom in Victoria's house has been taken over by a woman relative of one of their neighbors and her raucous toucan, a bird as spoiled as the most bratty millionaire's heir. Victoria is graceful about her unwanted boarders; but they do interfere with the column she writes for the local newspaper and with her efforts to discover whether the strange antics of the coffin are related to the murders.
Victoria is the most realistic and the most delightful nonagenarian in mystery fiction. Her years have not blunted her intelligence and her sharp wit. We're lucky that she's still around and seems to be set for a long time.
**
ES Index : 4
Number of Words in Auth: 2
Formats : EPUB
Number of Formats : 1
Has Cover : Yes
All Identifiers : amazon:0312330111, goodreads:2189173, google:S_9cGPH3wl0C, isbn:9780312330118
Test Text Series Index: Mystery
Single Author : Cynthia Riggs
Original Source : New_Files_Oatmeal_05_18_A
Sorted Author by LN, FN: Riggs, Cynthia
Title Length : 018
Title Parm D : Jack in the Pulpit
Title Parm F : Jack in the Pulpit
Num of Aut : 1
Title Parm B : (
ES Lib Name : NIRC 2019-05
Record ID : 108845
Template Work Area : Mystery
ES Name : Martha's Vineyard Mystery
Uncomma Author : Cynthia Riggs
Title Parm A : Jack in the Pulpit