Trumpet of Death

February 20, 2017
At the start of Riggs’s satisfying 13th Martha’s Vineyard mystery (after 2016’s Bloodroot), feisty 92-year-old Victoria Trumbull, a poet, takes her young and not-too-sharp upstairs tenant, Zack Zeller, on a nature walk. In the woods, she shows him some poisonous mushrooms known as black trumpets (aka trumpets of death). Zack, who has a summer job as a dishwasher, has been loaning money to his spoiled girlfriend, Samantha Eberhardt, a drug user and dealer, who promises to pay him back but never does. When Zack breaks up with Sam, she threatens him. To get back at Sam, Zack gives her some of the deadly mushrooms in the hope they will sicken her, but things don’t go as planned. When Sam’s body turns up on a bike path, Zack isn’t the only murder suspect, since she may have had a hand in ruining a number of lives on the island. Fans of darker cozies will enjoy Riggs’s blend of crime, island lore, and well-drawn characters. Agent: Paula Munier, Talcott Notch Literary Agency.

February 15, 2017
It takes a sleuth with years of experience and loads of local connections to solve the murder of a very unpopular woman.Poet and amateur sleuth Victoria Trumbull, who's spent her entire 92 years on Martha's Vineyard, has rented a room to Zack Zeller, a nice but rather dim young man. While they're taking a nature walk together, she points out the rare black trumpets of death mushrooms, which, despite their name, are not poisonous. Zack is just one of many men and women who've been captivated by wealthy, attractive Samantha Eberhardt, whose vindictive father throws more money than love in her direction. When Zack tries to break up with her, she claims to be pregnant, and Zack plots to feed her some death trumpets, which he hopes will cause a miscarriage. No fool, Samantha tells her father that she thinks Zack is trying to poison her. He invites Zack to a dinner where the mushrooms are served, though not to Zack, who runs away. When Samantha's found murdered, Zack is naturally the prime suspect, but he has more to fear from vengeful Mr. Eberhardt than the police. Victoria's certain that Zack is innocent, but she already has her hands full with the case of a young local burned to death in a fire deliberately set at a disused old parsonage. As Victoria mines her sources for information, she finds that Samantha has taken many lovers and gotten many local young people hooked on drugs. Clearly, there's a surfeit of possible killers to winnow before Victoria can solve the crimes. Riggs' pleasantly old-fashioned sleuth (Bloodroot, 2016, etc.) is still clever enough to come up with a surprising culprit in another graceful homage to the island both she and her author call home.

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