"Trumpet of Death"

Cynthia Riggs is the author of the Martha’s Vineyard mystery series and the guidebook Victoria Trumbull’s Martha’s Vineyard. She started writing the series while earning her MFA at Vermont College at age 68. Prior to becoming an author, she qualified for the 1948 Olympic fencing team, was the seventh woman to set foot on the South Pole, and crossed the Atlantic twice in a thirty-two-foot sailboat.

Riggs applied the Page 69 Test to Trumpet of Death, the 13th volume in the Martha’s Vineyard mystery series, and reported the following:

I turned to page 69 of Trumpet of Death and found my would be murderer, Zack, is trying to get off the Island in a hurry. However, the last ferry is about to leave and has no room for his car. The ticket agent says, “You can get over as a passenger, but you better hurry.” He looks out the window. “Nope. They’ve closed the doors. Too late.” Zack is convinced he has killed a half dozen people he hadn’t intended to kill, the intended victim is still alive, and the cops are after him.

By calling him “would be murderer,” I need to explain that Victoria Trumbull, my 92-year-old protagonist, has introduced Zack, a city boy from South Boston, to the highly prized, gourmet mushroom called black trumpet of death, warning him not to pick them because they are rare.

Zack, who wants to rid himself of his tiresome girlfriend, decides the mushrooms must be deadly. He gives the black trumpets to the girlfriend, who gives them to Daddy, who serves them at a dinner party and invites Zack, who flees when he sees what’s on the menu.

So that’s where we are on page 69. Is the page representative of the rest of the book? One word: yes.

Visit Cynthia Riggs's website.

--Marshal Zeringue