“Feisty, fiercely independent nonagenarian poet Victoria Trumbull makes a welcome debut in Riggs’ first novel…Everyone should have such a terrific grandmother.”

“Enjoyable…Victoria’s legendary pluckiness borders on the deranged [and] Porter gives it the skill she would bring to high art…It goes a long way.”

“Victoria’s mordant wit and easy cleverness add to this vastly entertaining debut series.”

“First-rate plotting notwithstanding, it is Riggs’ wonderful cast of characters that brings her novel to life. In addition to the endearing yet never sentimentalized Victoria, the supporting figures are uniformly compelling and thoroughly believable.”

“Tight plotting and engaging characters make this mystery a winner. Porter gives a full-voiced performance, doing a convincing elderly female, an imperious Latino harbormaster, teens, and snooty townies.”

“The island itself becomes a major character, one that Riggs depicts with exquisite attention to details, sounds, and colors…The narrator, with her range of voices and grasp of natural speech patterns, is ideal for this leisurely paced tale…A rousing good yarn and ample evidence of Riggs’ extraordinary gift for intrigue and description.”

“Combine[s] the best ingredients of mystery and fine writing, great characters, and brilliant descriptions of the sounds, smells, and visuals of the magic of Martha’s Vineyard…I loved it.”

“With Deadly Nightshade we have a wonderful and welcom debut, not only of one of the feistiest sleuths you’ll ever encounter in ninety-two-year-old Victoria Trumbull, but also of an accomplished novelist, one Cynthia Riggs, who does not fail to tell a compelling and funny and mysterious and downright joyful whodunit. May many more books follow this one!”