Deadly Nightshade
Martha's Vineyard Mystery • Book 1
by Cynthia Riggs
Why You'll Love This
A 92-year-old amateur sleuth on Martha's Vineyard is frankly more capable than anyone giving her orders — and she proves it.
- Great if you want: a cozy mystery anchored by a sharp, elderly protagonist
- The experience: unhurried and atmospheric — community-driven, not thriller-paced
- The writing: Riggs weaves island setting and local flavor into every scene
- Skip if: you prefer tightly plotted mysteries over character-led cozies
About This Book
On Martha's Vineyard, where everyone knows everyone and the tides keep their own schedule, 92-year-old Victoria Trumbull is not the kind of woman who minds her own business — especially when a scream in the night leads to a body on the water. What unfolds is less a race against a killer than a quiet reckoning with a community that thought it knew itself, and a reminder that the sharpest minds in any room aren't always the youngest ones in it.
Cynthia Riggs writes with an unhurried confidence that matches her protagonist perfectly — the prose has the texture of island life itself, rooted and observant, with a dry wit that surfaces when you least expect it. Victoria is a genuinely original creation: formidable without being cartoonish, elderly without being diminished. The mystery is tightly woven into the rhythms of small-town New England, and Riggs never lets the cozy atmosphere become an excuse for shallow characters or slack plotting. This is the kind of regional mystery that earns its sense of place rather than merely borrowing it for backdrop.
