Mystery Fiction

An announcement that the Boston-based public television show American Antiques is coming to Martha’s Vineyard to shoot an episode has the island’s residents digging through drawers and attics in search of hidden treasures. The show’s hosts are famous for revealing the worth of unsung antiques that are brought to the show. Priscilla’s cousin Gail asks Priscilla to help her search a friend’s cottage at the Camp Association for valuable items to be appraised. But when their search turns up a large model ship that looks old, Wanda, the cottage’s owner, is baffled. How did the ship get there, and, perhaps more importantly, who left it there? As Priscilla sets out to investigate this seemingly innocuous collectible, she finds herself drawn into a bizarre web of intrigue that stretches from Boston to the cozy environs of Martha’s Vineyard and back.

Prickly Virginia Lawrence, a preeminent scholar of Vineyard history, is also a notorious recluse. Therefore, the island is abuzz when Priscilla manages to book a library lecture with the local eccentric. However, on the evening of the event, Virginia is a no-show and nowhere to be found, and the valuable museum artifacts in her possession are now missing as well. As Priscilla delves into the mystery of Virginia’s ill-timed disappearance, a seemingly unrelated puzzle emerges. Could a rash of random cemetery plunderings somehow be connected to the missing historian?

As pressure builds to find Virginia and the missing priceless artifacts, she begins to doubt her own instincts—especially when she spies Gerald having mysterious dinner meetings with a lovely blonde-haired woman.