Death at Woods Hole

May 28, 2012
Set after the Pullman strike of 1894 (chronicled in 2011’s Death at Pullman), McNamara’s overly complicated fourth Emily Cabot mystery suffers from a surfeit of subplots and minor characters. Soon after free-spirited Emily and her best friend from Chicago, Clara Shea, arrive in Woods Hole, Mass., to study at the famed Marine Biology Laboratory for the summer, they discover a body in the squid tank. It belongs to “obnoxious and unpleasant” Lincoln McElroy, who wanted to postpone a vote on the raging controversy over keeping the institute independent from Clark University. Grouchy Sheriff Seth Redding suspects McElroy was poisoned before falling into the tank. Meanwhile, the quaint Snow Goose Inn, where Emily and Clara are staying, goes up in flames in an apparent effort to destroy evidence in the murky murder case. Various love intrigues, including one between Emily and local physician Stephen Chapman, distract from the crime solving.