Shooting Star
A Martha's Vineyard Mystery
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
In Shooting Star, ninety-two-year-old poet Victoria Trumbull becomes embroiled in controversy at the community theater on Martha's Vineyard. The new artistic director has announced plans to replace local amateur talent with off-Island professionals, and the cast and crew react murderously.
Victoria intended the theater's current production, her adaptation of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, to debunk the common farcical movie-monster interpretation by returning to Shelley's original serious commentary on the Industrial Revolution. However, after the night of the dress rehearsal, Victoria loses control over the production, and her drama begins to take a strange course.
On that night, the eight-year-old boy playing the part of Frankenstein's young brother disappears, and before a search can begin, a killer strikes. The Vineyard's police forces mobilize for an Island-wide search. In the original story of Frankenstein, the boy is the first victim of the monster, and Victoria fears that a copycat killer is following her playscript. She determines to find the missing boy and track down the killer before more deaths occur.
Along with familiar Island characters from her previous books, the author introduces a cast of new and often eccentric players. Shooting Star, the seventh book in the Martha's Vineyard mystery series, explores the rich setting of the Island that author Cynthia Riggs knows well, from the rose-covered Dukes County jail on Edgartown's Main Street to the quaint ferry terminal in Oak Bluffs. It's a delightful read that both fans and newcomers to the series will be sure to enjoy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Riggs's pleasing seventh Martha's Vineyard mystery (after 2006's Indian Pipes) finds her 92-year-old heroine, Victoria Trumbull, a poet and deputy police officer, becoming a playwright for a summertime stage adaptation of Frankenstein. The amateur theatrical troupe which includes such locals as DEA agent Howland Atherton (playing the monster) and high school student Dawn Haines (playing Frankenstein's bride) prepares for opening night under the dictatorial leadership of artistic director Dearborn Hall. The production is beset by tragedy when its eight-year-old star, Teddy Vanderhoop, goes missing, and his neighbor, also an actress in the show, is found murdered. Demoralized by the death and disappearance, much of the cast drops out, but Dearborn insists the show must go on with farcical results. Riggs delivers yet another irresistible beach read.
