TOUCH-ME-NOT

Is 92 the new 50? It’s certainly no bar to being the best sleuth on Martha’s Vineyard.

Victoria Trumbull is uneasily awaiting the arrival of her daughter Amelia, who thinks her mother belongs in assisted living. Amelia’s daughter Elizabeth, who lives with Victoria, knows better. So do most of the local residents. They ask for another chance to see how right they are when several members of Elizabeth’s group of mathematical knitters, who are working on an amazing coral-reef quilt at the local library, receive harassing phone calls. Victoria is anxious to help, but she’s also faced with a possible murder when the body of Jerry Sparks is discovered hidden in a shed near the library. Jerry had recently been fired by his boss LeRoy Watts, owner of Watts Electrical Supply, a man whose own behavior is becoming ever more suspicious. When his boys are sent home from school for having a Taser, and Jerry’s girlfriend presents Roy’s wife with several videos of Vineyard women taking showers, the elusive Watts looks like the prime suspect. Victoria gamely sets out to solve the crimes, but she may be too late to save a loved one.

 A less convoluted plot than usual (Death and Honesty, 2009, etc.), along with the requisite paeans to the glories of Martha’s Vineyard, make this one of Riggs’s better efforts.