Heads up, mystery fans — Cynthia Riggs’s newest mystery will make its debut at the Artisans’ Fair this weekend: Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Ag Hall in West Tisbury. Murder on C-Dock is the start of a new series, set not on Martha’s Vineyard but on the D.C. waterfront, where Cynthia lived on a houseboat for 12 years while running a ferry boat company on Chesapeake Bay. (In the interest of full disclosure, I must confess that I edited the book.)
Shirley Mayhew and I are sharing a table at the Artisans’ Fair. She’ll be selling copies of her wonderful Looking Back: My Long Life on Martha’s Vineyard as well as daughter Sarah Mayhew’s gorgeous 2015 bird calendar. (Trust me, you want both the book and the calendar, and you can probably think of a few friends who would appreciate one or the other or both.) I’ll have copies of my novel, The Mud of the Place, which isn’t exactly new but holds up pretty well. At the next table you’ll find Cynthia and her books and also Lynn Christoffers and her Cats of Martha’s Vineyard. Do drop by!
Illustrations by Elizabeth Whelan
It was, quite literally, a dark and stormy night, when MURDER ON C-DOCK, my latest mystery, was conceived. At the time I wrote it, I was living on a houseboat in Washington, D.C., only a short walk from the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, where I worked. Living on a houseboat had been a childhood fantasy of mine, so after my divorce, I bought a 44-foot houseboat and lived aboard for the following twelve years
“What’s it like in the winter?” was one of the most common questions we liveaboards were asked.
“You want to be careful of your footing on the icy dock,” we’d respond. “The water is cold.”
But our boats were well insulated and warm, and on dark and stormy nights, dock people would gather on a neighbor’s boat with a jug or two of wine and talk river talk.
This particular night…
View original post 1,347 more words
From the Seasonally Occupied Territories . . . 