dustjackets.com
Series: This is Elisha Macomber #2 (of 16)
About the author: Kathleen Moore Knight (1890-1984) is one of my absolute favorite authors. She wrote 34 mystery novels, most set on fictional Penberthy Island off Massachusetts, all published by the Crime Club; with a few under the pseudonym of Alan Amos. See my post All I Know about Kathleen Moore Knight, as well as this Wikipedia article and her booklist on Fantastic Fiction.
Locale: fictional Penberthy Island*
Major characters:
- Luella Paige, retired teacher, our narrator
- Dorcas Brothers, her housekeeper
- George & Cora Howland, lighthouse keepers
- Laura May Howland, their daughter
- Hiram Pearse, helper to George Howland
- Evan Ryder, friend of Laura
- Julian Hollister, rich Bostonian
- Lydia Hollister, Julian's (separated) wife
- Elisha Macomber, chairman of selectmen
- Buck Edwards, chief of police
Synopsis: Adjacent to Penbethy Island lies tiny Quantauk Island, not connected but served by a on-demand one-car ferry. Quantauk is the home of retired teacher (and our narrator) Luella Paige. In the summer, she sleeps in a room she has fashioned in her boathouse. She is awakened by a sound, to find the ferry afloat off her dock, with a car on it. She pulls it in to find the dead body of Julian Hollister. He was known as a well-to-do hard-drinking bounder, and his body shows signs of a fight. He is later found to have died from carbon monoxide poisoning, and the exhaust system of the car shows evidence of tampering.
When looking at the body, Luella found a white coin-shaped seed pod (photo) stuck on his sock - the seed pod of the Peter's Pence plant, also called 'The Poor Man's Shilling'. The plant is only known to grow on one location on the island. This leads Luella to begin investigating, teaming up with Board of Selectmen chair Elisha Macomber.
Quite a few people had motive to do away with Holllister. He had been playing up to local girl Laura May Howland, who hoped to marry him; much to dismay of her admirer Evan Ryder. Everyone is shocked when fashionable Lydia Hollister shows up to claim her husband's body - no one knew he was married.
Review: This second of the series is a good page-turner with excellent atmosphere of foggy, damp, dark island nights. There is a lot of emphasis on how the various boats moved back and forth between the islands but I did not try to keep track of these movements. This one, as all the Macomber series, is good for lots of local color.
* Penberthy and Quantauk Islands are thinly-disguised versions of Knight's home, Martha's Vineyard and adjacent Chappaquiddick; sharing the same general shape, orientation, and general arrangement. Knight is buried on Martha's Vineyard.
Penberthy and Quantauk
Martha's Vineyard and Chappaquiddick (google maps)
No comments:
Post a Comment