Download or read book The Cranefly Orchid Murders written by Cynthia Riggs and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2002-05-10 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In her first book, Deadly Nightshade, Cynthia Riggs introduced us to one of fiction's most delightful - and most realistic - "circumstantial detectives" - an ordinary civilian whom circumstances thrust into the role of sleuth. Victoria Trumbull is as believable a feisty 92-year-old as you can imagine, with all the expected aches and pains and a refusal to let them stop her from enjoying her multifarious activities. A native of the Massachusetts island called Martha's Vineyard, whose ancestors sailed from its shores generations back, Victoria knows more about the island and its people, then and now, than anyone else living. The knowledge has helped her solve one murder and earn her own baseball cap emblazoned with "West Tisbury Police Deputy," and the job that goes with it. Of course she knows Phoebe Eldridge; a short-tempered woman who lives alone, dislikes her granddaughter intensely and won't even mention the name of her son, a Vietnam vet who disappeared some years before. It's Phoebe's rancor as much as any desire for money that leads her to sell the family land to a developer who comes up with what seems like an offer she doesn't want to resist. The Conservation Trust enlists Victoria, as someone who will not be suspected, to search that land for an endangered plant, any endangered plant, because the state prohibits bulldozing rare plant habitats. Victoria is delighted to add another purpose to her daily walks. She enlists an eleven-year-old after-school assistant, and with the "Endangered" list in her hand, she begins her search. Her first find, though, is the body of one Montgomery Mausz, the developer's rather dubious attorney. There are plenty of suspects, but deputy Victoria (don't dare say "honorary deputy" to Victoria's face) hasn't forgotten her first task and is rewarded by the discovery of a little nest of cranefly orchids, which puzzle Victoria by appearing to change shape. In the course of this botanical detection, Victoria and her assistant are treated to adventures that delight the 92-year-old as much as the pre-teen, even though they give both of them more scares than they had bargained for. This charming story, with its share of thrills and suspense, will have readers crossing their fingers and hoping the sea air, home-baked beans, and a vital interest in what goes on around her will keep old Victoria Trumbull going for a long, long time.
Download or read book A Beautiful Place to Die written by Philip R. Craig and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-07-26 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First in the series that’s “a breath of fresh air with a touch of murder most foul”—now a movie series on Hallmark Channel starring Jesse Metcalfe (Denver Rocky Mountain News). Ex-cop J. W. Jackson searches for answers after a mysterious and deadly boat explosion on Martha’s Vineyard. During his career as a Boston cop, Jeff “J. W.” Jackson saw enough of the evil that men do to last a lifetime. So he retired to the serenity of Martha’s Vineyard to spend his days fishing for blues. But when a local’s boat mysteriously explodes off the coast, killing an amiable young drifter, Jackson finds himself reluctantly drawn back into the investigative trade. Praise for the Martha’s Vineyard Mysteries “Fun . . . an enjoyable book . . . perfect for hot weather relaxing.” —Los Angeles Daily News “An exciting adventure . . . [that] lets the reader become an islander for a while.” —The Houston Post “Refreshing . . . entertaining . . . a nicely crafted mystery.” —Knoxville News Sentinel “Spending time with Craig on Martha’s Vineyard is the next best thing to vacationing on the island itself.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune “Craig knows his angling and his sailing . . . but he also knows how to make engaging characters.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer
Download or read book Death in Vineyard Waters written by Philip Craig and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-07-26 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Martha’s Vineyard Mysteries now a movie series on Hallmark Channel starring Jesse Metcalfe! J.W. Jackson returns in another unputdownable mystery as he searches for answers on a beloved local’s strange death on Martha’s Vineyard. Professor Marjorie Summerharp was reborn on Martha’s Vineyard—her mind sharpened by the island’s gentle waves and whispering breezes. So why would she walk into the ocean on a warm June morning, to be swallowed up forever by the sea? Ex-Boston-cop “J.W.” Jackson knows that evil can flourish even in the most serene of settings. And the more he investigates, the more it appears that the mysterious “accidental” death of the renowned local scholar was no accident.
Download or read book Murder at a Vineyard Mansion written by Philip R. Craig and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2005-05-24 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's particularly quiet on Martha's Vineyard this summer, since a shadowy figure called "the Silencer" began his covert campaign of destruction -- disabling the audio systems in the homes and vehicles of selfish, music-blasting islanders. A respite from the unwanted noise suits fishing enthusiast, former cop, and sometime investigator J.W. Jackson just fine -- until a gargantuan new Chappaquiddick mansion is vandalized and a night watchman is thrown to his death off a nearby cliff. Hired by the aristocratic mother of the most likely suspect to help prove her son's innocence, J.W. starts to explore some mysterious connections linking the Vineyard's most prominent families. But digging up the dirty secrets of the island elite may only inflame a murderer who's not done killing -- and hasten J.W.'s own journey to the graveyard.
Download or read book A Vineyard Killing written by Philip R. Craig and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2004-05-25 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sell Low, Die Hard Former champion Olympic fencer-turned-sleazy real estate developer Donald Fox isn't making any friends on Martha's Vineyard this gray and chilly March. He's using unscrupulous methods and legal ambiguities to force homeowners to sell their valuable land at rock bottom prices. He's even approached fisherman/sometime-sleuth J. W. Jackson and his wife Zee, not realizing that the retired Boston cop is anything but an easy mark. So when Donald's brother Paul is shot by an unseen assailant on a Vineyard street, J. W. can't help wondering if the wrong Fox sibling inadvertently took the bullet. Since Jackson's curiosity and deep-rooted sense of justice have always gotten the better of him -- and since the bluefish aren't running yet anyway -- he's going to track down the shooter, before preseason on his beloved isle turns irrevocably deadly.
Download or read book Widow s Wreath written by Cynthia Riggs and published by Crooked Lane Books. This book was released on 2018-06-12 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It’s a case of cold feet—and cold-blooded murder—as 92-year-old poet/sleuth Victoria Trumbull gets more than she bargained for after hosting an ill-fated wedding. A wedding on picturesque Martha’s Vineyard promises to be the affair of the season when Penny Arbuthnot asks her cousin, feisty 92-year-old poet Victoria Trumbull, if she can use her property for the reception. Victoria agrees—but she has no idea what’s in store for the hapless couple. For one, Penny is seriously in debt and desperate to marry money. She thinks she’s on the road to riches when she hooks Rocco Bufano, whose father is a multi-billionaire. But unbeknownst to Penny, Rocco’s been disowned by dad. He’s also in hock up to his ears, and thinks he’s bagged the catch of a lifetime in a wealthy Vineyard native. He also knows that someone is out to kill him. In fact, several guests have a reason to off Rocco, among them an autistic savant with a prodigious knowledge of murder weapons. Victoria has assumed the reception will be a modest lemonade-and-gingersnap affair—but when a body is found in her cellar, it may be a happily-never-after in Widow’s Wreath, the fourteenth engaging installment in Cynthia Riggs’s beloved Martha’s Vineyard mysteries.
Download or read book Mystery on the Vineyard written by Tom Dresser and published by True Crime. This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the pre, World War II innocence of small-town America, a dapper off-Islander impresses the locals. Drawn to the prettiest girl, he is upset when an elderly woman tries to break off their romance. In a drunken stupor he murders the troublesome woman. Through an amazing confluence of circumstances, he avoids prosecution. The reclusive, paranoid teacher of the victim attracts the attention of a distracted district attorney who is eager for a sensational trial to promote himself in an impending election. The teacher is arrested and charged with the murder. The looming shadows of war on the international stage capture the people of Martha's Vineyard, and the local murder fades into the murky memoirs of history.
Download or read book A Shoot on Martha s Vineyard written by Philip R. Craig and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-07-26 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life on the Vineyard is good. Maybe too good. The bluefish are running early, and there’s plenty of quality fishing time to be spent with ex-cop J.W. Jackson’s new baby son Joshua. But an idyllic summer hits a snag when a movie scout from Hollywood invades the beaches. Worse, a longtime nemesis turns up murdered just one day after he and J.W. come to blows, and Jackson is considered by nearly everyone to be the most likely suspect. If he hopes to spend the remainder of the season—as well as many others to come—enjoying simple family pleasures and fine, fresh seafood, J.W. will have to cast his line out and hook the real killer.
Download or read book The Jawsfest Murders written by Crispin Nathaniel Haskins and published by Createspace Independent Pub. This book was released on 2013-04-07 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Another perfect summer is in full swing on Martha's Vineyard when Charles Williams arrives for the vacation of a lifetime. Charles is one of thousands who are there for the celebration of the 1975 blockbuster JAWS. Very little has changed since it was shot there almost forty years ago; however, Martha's Vineyard proves to be less than idyllic. The gruesome evidence of a fatal shark attack is discovered in the ocean while in Edgartown, vacationers fall victim to an unknown killer. Police Chief Laurie Knickles enlists the help of her friend and amateur sleuth, Charles Williams, as they suspect no one will be safe in the water or on land until they solve The JAWSfest Murders.
Download or read book Murder on Martha s Vineyard written by Kelley Roos and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Trumpet of Death written by Cynthia Riggs and published by Minotaur Books. This book was released on 2017-04-25 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When 92-year-old poet/sleuth Victoria Trumbull takes her city-bred tenant Zack Zeller on a nature walk on one of Martha’s Vineyard’s conservation areas and shows him a mushroom she calls black trumpet of death, he’s sure he's found the way to rid himself of his troublesome girlfriend, Samantha. But the mushrooms he's given Samantha end up on her daddy's dinner table, and Zack, one of the invited guests, is sure he’s doomed the diners to an untimely death. Meanwhile, dead bodies are cropping up on the Island. The police have questions about the identity of the culprit and call upon Victoria Trumbull, who knows the Island and its inhabitants intimately. Will she be able to find the truth and clear the name of someone close to her before the murderer finds its next victim? In addition to giving us more of the eccentric cast of characters and quirky plot we love, Trumpet of Death, the 13th book in Cynthia Riggs' Martha’s Vineyard mystery series, describes in loving detail little-known parts of the Island that visitors seldom see.
Download or read book Exhibit written by Crispin Nathaniel Haskins and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2023-05-31 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vacationing on Martha's Vineyard with his family, ten year old, Peter Morgan is thrilled when he meets Charles Williams. The feeling is mutual. Both boys are happy to have a friend to hang with for the summer, instead of having to follow their parents everywhere around the island. Their excitement hits an almost fever pitch when they discover that JAWS 2 is being filmed in Edgartown! When the two boys meet Craig Upland, an islander and member of the production, he says he can get them up close and personal with one of the mechanical sharks. The boys will remember this summer season for the rest of their lives. Judie Tate and Alan Quaid are spending the summer navigating their relationship while sailing the waters of Vineyard Sound. They're both attractive, single, and they enjoy each other's company-so why not? It seems only natural that a romance should blossom. That is, until Craig Upland drives into the picture and takes an interest in Judie. Sails are hoisted, tempers brew, and tensions run deep. Everything comes to a head during a storm the likes of which the island won't soon forget. Forty-five years later, the sun rises on a new summer season. 1977 was a big year in the island's history-movie productions, the disappearance of a boy from a prominent family, and political unrest forcing the island to try and secede from the state of Massachusetts. It's all the focus of an exciting art exhibit in Edgartown which brings Peter and Charles back together again for the first time in almost five decades. Charles is married to the Edgartown Police Chief and Peter is now a celebrated New York artist. He has come back to the island to excavate the demons that have made his art popular but are also slowly killing him. Photos the two boys took that summer are to be featured in the exhibit. Yet someone does not want the exhibit to take place. Someone is willing to do anything to stop the secrets of the past from swimming to the surface.
Download or read book The Bee Balm Murders written by Cynthia Riggs and published by Minotaur Books. This book was released on 2011-04-26 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The one-of-a-kind sleuth Victoria Trumbull must solve another puzzling mystery on Martha's Vineyard, her Island home. It's spring on the Island, and at the suggestion of her beekeeper, Victoria takes in a new boarder, Orion Nanopoulos. Orion is leading a project to lay a fiber-optic cable across the island. When a body is found in the trench where they are laying the cable, Orion tells Victoria he recognizes the dead man as someone who was a potential investor. Victoria, renowned for her skill at solving crimes and for her knowledge about the Island's residents, is hired by the dead man's sons to investigate the murder. The Bee Balm Murders is the tenth entry in this delightful cozy series. Boasting a unique heroine, an eccentric cast, and beautiful descriptions of Martha's Vineyard, it's sure to please fans and create new ones.
Download or read book The Rise of Tourism on Martha s Vineyard written by Thomas Dresser and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2013-04-09 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now known as a resort community and vacation destination, Martha's Vineyard was once a simple fishing and whaling community. From the popularity of the Methodist Campground, founded in 1835, the Vineyard soon blossomed into a summer vacation mecca, welcoming visitors to its quaint villages and scenic seashores. As whaling lost its economic dominance, tourism became the catalyst for a revived prosperity on the Vineyard. President Grant's visit to the Vineyard in 1874 drew national attention and marked the beginning of several presidential visits to the island. By 1900, Oak Bluffs had developed an amusement park atmosphere with the iconic Flying Horses, toboggan slide and grand seaside hotels. Join local historian Tom Dresser as he reveals the island's transformation into a premier tourist destination.
Download or read book Poison Ivy written by Cynthia Riggs and published by Minotaur Books. This book was released on 2015-03-31 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On her first day as adjunct professor at Ivy Green College, Victoria Trumbull recognizes the stench emanating from her classroom as more than just dead mice. Brownie, the groundskeeper's mangy mutt, soon discovers a second body hiding beneath a cluster of poison ivy. The stakes have never been higher for Ivy Green, which is on the brink of losing already-lukewarm support from its accredited partner, Cape Cod University. Thackery Wilson, the founder of Ivy Green, worries that the bad publicity from the murders will obliterate the financial and academic support the tiny college and its dependent students desperately need. As the bodies continue to pile up, all tenure committee members, Victoria and Brownie find themselves hunting a serial killer and trying to save the college. This charming 11th entry in Cynthia Rigg's Martha's Vineyard mystery series brings the island to life with a cast of eccentric characters led by a unique and endearing sleuth.
Download or read book A Fatal Vineyard Season written by Philip R. Craig and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-07-26 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Martha’s Vineyard is home to ex-Boston cop J.W. Jackson, his adored wife Zee, their toddler Joshua, and newborn daughter Diana. For others, the picturesque vacation spot is a relaxing escape. But there is no escape for Julia Crandel and Ivy Holiday, two Hollywood actresses staying in the Vineyard town of Oak Bluffs. Their arrival has incurred the wrath of a pair of local gangsters, and a deadly stalker from out of the young ladies’ past has found out where they are hiding. Twin hurricanes are about to slam the idyllic island—one a natural climatic disaster, the other an all-too-human catastrophe—and it looks as if J.W. is going to get caught in the middle.
Download or read book Bloodroot written by Cynthia Riggs and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-05-03 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's just another day at the dentist's office for Victoria Trumbull when fellow patient, wealthy Mrs. Wilmington, dies. It's an unfortunate, though seemingly not murderous incident, but the receptionist is hysterical, so one of the dental assistants offers to drive her home. But after making a quick pit stop, he finds her body floating in the harbor. With the police shorthanded due to an upcoming presidential visit, it's up to Victoria to take on the case. As she wrestles with her ex-son-in-law, a $3 million will, and a deadly dental clinic, Mrs. Trumbull discovers that nothing in the case is quite what it seems. Bloodroot is the latest in Cynthia Riggs' longstanding Martha's Vineyard mystery series, filled with delightful characters and charming descriptions of the beautiful island.
