Death on Tuckernuck by Francine Mathews

First Line: He hadn't expected Ash that Saturday morning, hurrying down the weathered wooden pier in her rope soled wedges and skinny jeans, a slouchy silk sweater slipping down to reveal one perfect shoulder.

A Category 3 hurricane is bearing down on Nantucket Island. As caretakers of Tuckernuck, a private exclusive island off the western tip of Nantucket, Dionis Mather and her father Jerry have to make sure everything is battened down, but when Dionis gets word that a star NFL player's horses are unsecured, she's certain she can get them in their barn and still have plenty of time to get back to Nantucket before the hurricane hits.

Detective Merry Folger has more on her mind than a hurricane-- just a little something called her wedding-- and that jerk of a police chief is making her work practically right up until time for the ceremony. When the Coast Guard alerts Nantucket police of a luxury yacht grounded on the shoals off Tuckernuck's northern edge-- with two shooting victims in the main cabin-- Merry rushes to get to the crime scene before all the evidence is washed away. As she puts all the pieces together, she realizes that she might have to risk everything in order to bring a criminal to justice.

If you want to read books that make you feel as though you're experiencing life on Nantucket Island, you need to read Francine Mathew's Merry Folger series. It also goes without saying that, if you want to "experience" a hurricane without actually living through one, you need to read Death on Tuckernuck.

The mystery is a cracker. Readers have a little inside knowledge that characters like Dionis and Merry don't-- how many people were on board that yacht for instance-- but that's certainly not enough to put all the pieces together until Merry's hard work begins to pay off. (And that hard work of hers will pay off in unexpected ways.) The only real question is: Is the wedding still on despite a murder investigation and a hurricane?

That you will have to find out for yourself, and you are going to enjoy yourself while doing so. New to the series? I'll be honest with you. I've read only three books in this series, the first and the most recent two, and I haven't felt lost. But the setting is superb and the characters and stories so strong that you might just want to start with the first, Death in the Off-Season and enjoy the sea breeze along with a murder or two.

Death on Tuckernuck by Francine Mathews

eISBN: 9781616959944

Soho Press © 2020

eBook, 264 pages

Police Procedural, #6 Merry Folger mystery

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley

 

Death on Nantucket by Francine Mathews

First Line: The shadow of the Cessna flitted over the white-capped waves of Nantucket Sound, swift and elusive as a gull's wing.

There is a national treasure living on Nantucket Island. Spencer Murphy is a famous Vietnam War correspondent who escaped captivity and in the decades since has made a fortune from his books and personal appearances. But Spencer has become forgetful with age, wandering and even failing to return home one night. Then a body is discovered at his estate, and Nantucket police detective Meredith (Merry) Folger comes to investigate.

As far as investigations go, the timing couldn't be worse. It's the Fourth of July when tourists come to the island by the thousands and extra police have to be brought in from the outside. Merry is also planning her wedding and dealing with an aggressive new police chief who seems to want her to quit. She's also forced to deal with a family of unreliable narrators, and she's worried that the truth may be trapped in the failing brain of Spencer Murphy, thus forever out of reach.

Francine Mathews has been one busy writer. When approached by her publisher to write another of her Merry Folger mysteries-- a series she wrote in the mid- to late 1990s-- she agreed on one condition: that she rewrite the first four books to bring them up to date. Having read and enjoyed the books in their first incarnation, I have to admit that I am interested in the updated versions.

Death on Nantucket continues the things I liked so much about the other books in the series. Mathews (who writes the Jane Austen mysteries under the name Stephanie Barron) brings the landscape of Nantucket to life in all its sights, sounds, and smells. She also brings in many fascinating facts about the island, some of them historical and some of them about everyday things like trash and landfills. Merry Folger is a strong, intelligent main character whom I quickly grew to like.

Woven into the investigation are scenes from Merry's personal life. That ex-Chicago cop who's now police chief on Nantucket is so obnoxious that I just had to roll my eyes and fume, and Mathews includes some mouth-watering scenes that will have dedicated foodies blissed out. Even though the members of the Murphy family didn't seem to be able to tell the truth, I had little trouble in deducing what was going on. But it certainly was great to visit Nantucket, and I'd go see Merry Folger again anytime!

Death on Nantucket by Francine Mathews

ISBN: 9781616957377

Soho Crime © 2017

Hardcover, 288 pages

Police Procedural, #5 Merry Folger mystery

Rating: B+

Source: the publisher

Death in the Off-Season by Francine Mathews

First Line: A perfect night for feijoada.

Rusty Mason hasn't been home in over ten years, so no one is more surprised than his brother Peter when Rusty's body is found facedown in one of the cranberry bogs on Peter's farm. 

Rusty was persona non grata to Peter, so why on earth was he there? That's only one question of many that Detective Merry Folger of the Nantucket Police Department must answer in her very first murder investigation. And while she's trying to find a killer, she's going to have a lot of people looking over her shoulder and trying to second-guess her: an overprotective father who's also chief of police, a jealous co-worker, an old flame, various suspects... and even Merry herself.

Francine Mathews writes excellent historical thrillers (Jack 1939, Too Bad to Die) that I always look forward to reading, so when a trusted source told me that she'd also written a police procedural series set on Nantucket Island, I knew I had to read at least one. After turning the last page on Death in the Off-Season, I know I'll be reading the rest of the series.

What's to like? First off, there's the setting of Nantucket Island. Although I've always been curious about Nantucket, I'd never read a book set there, so I really enjoyed Mathews' descriptions of the landscape and the weather, as well as information on growing and harvesting cranberries. Since Merry Folger and her family have deep roots on the island, Mathews also includes a bit of Nantucket history and geneaology. None of this is done in a heavy-handed manner, and all of it combines to add a strong foundation as well as charm to the story.

Something else to like about Death in the Off-Season is main character Meredith Abiah Folger. (How's that for a strong New England name?) She's smart, she's strong, and she certainly has good instincts. What holds her back is an overprotective father who also happens to be her boss. His desire to keep his daughter from harm not only makes Merry angry, it also causes her to hesitate, to doubt herself. Fortunately for her, Merry also has a wonderful grandfather who's loving, yet no-nonsense. He listens to her and gives her sound advice. (Now if he'd only set his son straight!) The only thing that appears to be wrong with Merry's grandfather is his tendency to turn their home into an episode of "Hoarders."

Mathews' cast of characters is a very strong one-- not only Merry's family, but several townspeople and friends as well. In fact one of the townspeople on Merry's list of suspects may turn out to be of romantic interest in future books.

Setting? Check! Characters? Check! So what about the story, the mystery, the whodunnit? I have one word for it: brilliant. The plot weaves people and secrets together in such a way that I never saw the identity of the killer coming. Plot? Check!

Now you understand why I want to read the rest of the books in this series, don't you?

Death in the Off-Season by Francine Mathews

ISBN: 0380723344

Avon Books © 1995

Mass Market Paperback, 343 pages

Police Procedural, #1 Merry Folger mystery

Rating: A

Source: Paperback Swap