In Shooting Star, ninety-two-year-old poet Victoria
Trumbull becomes embroiled in controversy at the community
theater on Martha's Vineyard. The new artistic director
has announced plans to replace local amateur talent with
off-Island professionals, and the cast and crew react murderously.
Victoria intended the theater's current production, her
adaptation of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, to debunk
the common farcical movie-monster interpretation by returning
to Shelley's original serious commentary on the the Industrial
Revolution. However, after the night of the dress rehearsal,
Victoria loses control over the production, and the drama
begins to take a strange course.
On that night, the eight-year-old boy playing the part
of Frankenstein's young brother disappears, and before the
search can begin, a killer strikes. The Vineyard's police
forces mobilize for an Island-wide search. In the original
story of Frankenstein, the boy is the first victim of the
monster, and Victoria fears that a copycat killer is following
her playscript. She determines to find the missing boy and
track down the killer before more deaths occur.
Along with familiar Island characters from her previous
books, the author introduces a cast of new and often eccentric
players.
Shooting Star, the seventh book in the Martha's
Vineyard mystery series, explores the rich setting of the
Island that Cynthia Riggs knows well, from the rose-covered
Dukes County jail on Edgartown's Main Street to the quaint
ferry terminal in Oak Bluffs. It's a delightful read that
both fans and newcomers to the series will enjoy.
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