Trumpet of Death: A Martha’s Vineyard Mystery

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. [em]Agent: Paula Munier, Talcott Notch Literary Agency. (Apr.) [/em]