The Paperwhite Narcissus » (19311 Blackstone)

Cynthia Riggs, a thirteenth-generation Islander, lives on Martha's Vineyard in her family homestead, which she runs as a bed-and-breakfast catering to poets and writers. She has a degree in geology from Antioch College and an MFA in creative writing from Vermont College, and she holds a U.S. Coast Guard Masters License (100-ton).

In this fifth book in the Victoria Trumbull series, the ninety-two-year-old sleuth finds herself embroiled in a series of murders after she is fired from her job as West Tisbury correspondent for The Island Enquirer (the editor claims the newspaper needs a younger look).

Victoria, determined to show that age is no barrier to news papering, immediately throws her weight behind The Grackle, intent on turning the two-page West Tisbury newsletter into a formidable competitor of the Enquirer. And it looks as though she will.

In the meantime, the Enquirer's narcissistic editor has been receiving a series of obituaries, each naming him as the deceased. He would dismiss them as a sick joke, but the obituaries follow the actual deaths of people close to him. Rather than going to the police, he grudgingly rehires Victoria to uncover the identity of the obituary writer. Victoria knows almost everybody on the Island, and she may be the only person who can solve the mystery before the editor needs a genuine obituary of his own.

In The Paperwhite Narcissus, as in the four previous books in the series, Cynthia Riggs explores the rich and varied setting of Martha's Vineyard in a way that only a native Islander can. The story glides from Wasque, the desolate southeast corner of Chappaquiddick, to the Coast Guard boat ramp in Menemsha; from the elegantly maintained Captains' houses in Edgartown to the wild Atlantic Ocean beach at Quansoo.

A delightfully cozy read, steeped in rich characters and a sense of place, this latest Victoria Trumbull mystery is sure to charm long-time fans and first-time readers.

Publishers Weekly

When Colley Jameson, the harried, hard-drinking editor of the Island Enquirer, refuses to reinstate Victoria Trumbull's weekly column, even after the 92-year-old sheriff's deputy saves his life when his tie gets stuck in a printing press, Victoria offers her services elsewhere in Riggs's delightful fifth Martha's Vineyard mystery (after 2004's Jack in the Pulpit). William Botts, editor of the West Tisbury Grackle, a one-page news sheet that sells for a dime, is happy to take on Victoria as an unpaid reporter, especially after she scoops the Enquirer with a story about two halves of a body found at widely separated locations. The deceased turns out to be an unloved developer, and the plot soon thickens with a fatal poisoning, threatening letters, disgruntled ex-wives and a third murder. By this point in the series, Riggs has achieved an easy style and comfortable pace that perfectly suit her heroine. Vineyard watchers may miss the focus on environmental concerns of earlier books, but they'll be relieved to find that the Enquirer and Grackle bear no resemblance to the two actual Martha's Vineyard newspapers. Agent, Nancy Love. (May 9) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.