Search This Blog

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Jack in the Pulpit by Cynthia Riggs

Jack in the Pulpit is a cozy featuring a ninety-two-year old resident of Martha's Vineyard. 

 from Publisher's Weekly:


Fall is a splendid season on Martha's Vineyard, with spectacular views of land and sea in the ever-changing light. The sudden death of four people in one month, all parishioners at the same church, however, upsets the island's tranquility. In Riggs's absorbing fourth Vineyard mystery (after 2003's Cemetery Yew), Victoria Trumbull, the wise and sprightly nonagenarian island native, is caught in the middle of a jealous battle between the new minister and the retiring minister (both named Jack) at the community church. The ministers' wives are spreading gossip about the four deceased, all of whom provided handsomely for the church. If Victoria's granddaughter, a fugitive from a vengeful and abusive husband, adds to her worries, Victoria can take solace in her developing friendship with the new, city-bred police chief. A complex, well-paced plot, involving a never-mentioned grandparent, an auto accident, a dead seagull and a basket of mushrooms, comes to a neat resolution. A sensitive observer of the scene, Riggs writes with warmth and humor about all-too-human characters with whom readers can readily identify.

If you really like this style, you might be a fan of this series.  Sometimes I do like a good cozy mystery, but this one didn't do much for me.  

Have to admit that I do admire a ninety-two-year old with the grit and gumption of Victoria, but the plot line(s) weren't that interesting.  Great cover, though!

Fiction.  Mystery.  2004.  211 pages.

2 comments:

  1. Jenclaire I read this book and I'm glad it was a good one!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sherri - I was interested in the experience of living on Martha's Vineyard. I'd love to visit the island sometime.

    ReplyDelete