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 : 3
Has Cover : Yes
Number of Words in Auth: 2
Formats : EPUB
Number of Formats : 1
All Identifiers : amazon:B00CLHJUPG
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 : 016
Title Parm D : The Cemetary Yew
Title Parm F : The Cemetary Yew
Num of Aut : 1
Title Parm B : (
ES Lib Name : NIRC 2019-05
Record ID : 108848
Template Work Area : Mystery
ES Name : Martha's Vineyard Mystery
Uncomma Author : Cynthia Riggs
Title Parm A : The Cemetary Yew