Synopsis
When a vigilante's quest to end noise pollution in Martha's Vineyard ends in a murder, J. W. Jackson is enlisted by the local matriarch to prove that her son is not responsible for the killing, an investigation that reveals a possible motive hidden among the area's oldest and most elite families. 50,000 first printing.
Reviews
Set in early June, before the hordes of vacationers descend, Craig's 15th Martha's Vineyard mystery (after 2003's A Vineyard Killing) arrives just in time for the beach. The Vineyard crime scene is a tad slow: a jail prisoner escapes after supper but usually returns before breakfast because the food is so good, thanks to a local chef doing time, while the cops aren't trying too hard to catch "the Silencer," who's been "destroying the sound systems of some of the loudest cars on the island." Then the murders of a security man at a Chappaquiddick "castle" (depicted on the jacket and nicely portending disaster) and the scion of an aristocratic landowner raise the ante. Retired Boston policeman J.W. Jackson sets aside such favorite pastimes as fishing and cooking to investigate several old island families, interbred and linked in the most unpleasant ways, all with ample motives and opportunities for the killings. As ever, Craig depicts the island's residents with humor and affection. J.W. takes his usual pot shots at the author's pet peeves (like drivers who "have their windows down and the volume turned as high as it will go"), but faces a loaded shotgun with aplomb in the near-fatal finale.
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Jefferson W. Jackson--J. W. to his friends--narrates this fourteenth Martha's Vineyard mystery in his usual sardonic and amiable voice. What makes this series so attractive is not only the sense of place but also J. W.'s real ties to his family. Sleuthing takes place while the kids are in school or when the beauteous and doe-eyed Zee can manage them. The deaths of two locals, unpleasant and unloved men, come the same summer an outlaw nicknamed the Silencer shoots out noisy car audio systems or the home stereos of people who boom their ugly music out their windows. In the course of his investigations, ex-cop J. W. finds even more blood ties among the old and monied families of the island. Along the way, he finally learns to use a computer (taught by his little children) and sees his daughter learn to skip stones and catch fish. A most pleasant trip down some unpleasant side roads. GraceAnne DeCandido
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