Off Season (A Martha’s Vineyard Mystery, 5)

It's the off-season on Martha's Vineyard. Hot summer had faded to cool autumn, and one hundred thousand tourists have packed up their towels and beach umbrellas and headed back to the mainland. Finally, the locals have their beautiful island to themselves. J.W. Jackson couldn't be happier. The former Boston cop had envisioned this sort of leisurely island lifestyle when he opted out of the fast track and relocated to the Vineyard. He enjoys his fall days fishing and scalloping at the choicest spots on the beach, and in the evenings, he cooks succulent gourmet feasts for his fiancee, Zee Madieras. But with the tourists gone, the locals have time to concentrate on their own lives - and on old antagonisms, like the long-standing quarrel between hunters and animal rights activists. The off-season is also hunting season, and it's not long before tempers start to flare. When an activist shoots a notoriously obnoxious hunter with a water pistol filled with blood-red dye, J.W. fears that worse is to come. Evil invades the idyllic setting just as the locals prepare for an island Christmas. A body is found, pierced by a hunting arrow, but the innocuous victim, neither hunter nor activist, is the last person anyone would have expected. Soon J.W. is thrust into a particularly nasty case as he treks across the island's winter land - and seascapes, encountering troubling aspects of island life that summer people - and even most of the locals - never imagine. With clever writing, sharp wit, and a captivating setting, Philip R. Craig's Off Season is a superb addition to a series that delights readers everywhere.