Death on Tuckernuck

February 10, 2020
Much of the action of Mathews’s gripping sixth Merry Folger mystery (after 2017’s Death on Nantucket) occurs on Tuckernuck, “the small island trailing like an afterthought off the western end of Nantucket.” At the end of September, most of Tuckernuck’s inhabitants have departed, leaving the island’s caretakers, Dionis Mather and her father, Jack, to evacuate the remaining residents as a hurricane approaches, though Jack has to abandon the task after suffering a heart attack. Meanwhile, Nantucket police detective Meredith “Merry” Folger is getting married soon, but the discovery of two gunshot victims aboard a yacht that runs aground on Tuckernuck during the storm ensures she’ll be on the job right up to her wedding day. A Coast Guard team is able to rescue the victims, but one dies on the helicopter flight to Nantucket, and the other remains in a coma in the hospital. At the peak of the hurricane, Dionis is trapped alone on Tuckernuck, until she meets a stranger with a gunshot wound in his hand. Readers will keep turning the pages to see what happens next. Mathews once again displays her storytelling powers. Agent: Raphael Sagalyn, Sagalyn Literary.