Martha’s Vineyard, south of Cape Cod in New England. A summer destination known for its charming harbor towns (like Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Vineyard Haven), sandy beaches, lighthouses, and rich history. Over 50% of properties there are seasonal homes, meaning the place takes on a different complexion in and out of season. Beloved of America’s east coast well-heeled, it’s also reportedly rife with depression, alcoholism, drug abuse and domestic violence. So naturally crime writers have shown up and dug in…..
As ever let’s start with a couple of series set in and around Martha’s Vineyard. Raemi A Ray writes the Martha’s Vineyard Murders series featuring London based lawyer Kyra Gibson who, in the first book in the series, A Chain of Pearls (2024) has arrived in Martha’s Vineyard to settle her estranged father’s affairs – and perhaps solve his probable murder. Then the body of a celebrated journalist is fished from the Edgartown Harbor, the official report rules his death accidental, and Kyra ends up on the case with world-weary local detective and forensic profiler, Tarek Collins. Kyra decides to stick around for an extended summer holiday in The Wraith’s Return (2024), having inherited her father’s beach house. But when a summer squall reveals the wreckage of a pirate ship, Keres, rich with rumored treasure, all hopes of peace are dashed. Kyra’s roped in, along with Tarek again. Two more books follow in the series of four – Widow’s Walk (2024) with Kyra and Tarek getting pretty close personally as well as professionally and murders at a historic mansion on Chappaquiddick. And finally, Final Exit (2024) and winter has settled over Martha’s Vineyard and (heaven forbid!!) podcasters are getting murdered!
Now the Martha’s Vineyard Mysteries by the wonderfully named Crispin Nathaniel Haskins. Haskins has said that his love of Martha’s Vineyard started when he went there for the first time in 1977. And so he’s written a bunch of mysteries set on the island, all featuring Edgartown Police Chief Laurie Knickles and Detective Jack Burrell. First off Pretty Vineyard Girls (2017): in Oak Bluffs, three young women are opening a clothing store, but when one of the women goes missing, it’s time to call in Police Chief Jeffries. In Dead and Buried (2019) it’s Christmas In Edgartown but there’s no time for festivities at the Edgartown Lighthouse as a young woman is abducted from inside her West Tisbury home. In White Shark (2016) Haskins returns to a theme he likes regularly – Martha’s Vineyard and Jaws. It’s JAWSfest, wedding season and people are dying. Exhibit: Murder (2023) sees tensions among sailors and holiday makers culminating in a storm when terrible things happen.
Another series is Philip R Craig’s Ex-Boston-cop J.W. Jackson Series. Titles include Vineyard Enigma, Vineyard Deceit, Death in Vineyard Waters, Vineyard Prey, A Fatal Vineyard Season, and Vineyard Blues – all from the early 2000s
I know I said there was a dark side to Martha’s Vineyard but there’s a cozy crime side too, of course. Cynthia Riggs has a series of Vineyard set geriatric cozies. In Deadly Nightshade (2013) Martha’s Vineyard has been home to Victoria Trumbull for most of her 92 years. But one evening, Victoria hears something that doesn’t quite belong: a scream followed by a splash and a sound of a car speeding away. And so Victoria is on the case, helped by her granddaughter Elizabeth, the harbormaster Domingo, and a swarm of Island locals. In Widow’s Wreath (2018) Victoria returns as Penny Arbuthnot, her cousin, looks to be getting into a marriage with Rocco Bufano, whose father is a multi-billionaire, and his very dubious family. Then there’s The Cemetery Yew (2021) and the West Tisbury police chief has officially made 92-year-old Victoria Trumbull her deputy. At a local cemetery coffin have been, dug up, and opened, and don’t contain the expected bodies they should. Should you happen to have been looking for a series with a nonagenarian detective then this is your series!!
A couple of stand-alone crime novels set on Martha’s Vineyard:
- Julie Spiro’s Such a Good Mom (2025). With a healthy newborn baby, a devoted husband, a successful career, and a busy life on Martha’s Vineyard, Brynn Nelson should be the happiest she’s ever been. The Vineyard is a beacon for wealthy visitors, and a place so beautiful that it seems immune to tragedy and crime. But when a murder happens Brynn gets drawn in to solve it, if only because she needs to save her own family from investigation.
- Holly Hodder Edgar’s Split Rock (2016) is described as a ‘Martha’s Vineyard Novel’, and its mixed genre with romance, self-introspection and a little crime too. Annie Tucker’s world is upended. She’s lost her favorite aunt, inherited a house and dog on Martha’s Vineyard, and now finds herself alone there with three small children while her husband is away. When she runs into her old boyfriend, she must confront the life she has chosen with the life she might have had. But it won’t be easy and there will be loss, tragedy and trouble.
And finally….we at CrimeReads normally avoid any overt nepotism. There’s quite enough of that floating around the world at the moment as it is. But if we’re going to linger on the Massachusetts coast then we should mention CrimeReads very own Dwyer Murphy’s The House on Buzzards Bay (2025). And remember, I mentioned it, not him!! A reunion takes a dark turn when a group of old friends meet at a house on the Massachusetts coast. One, a successful writer named Bruce, vanishes without a trace. The situation is compounded by mysterious burglaries in the surrounding town, much of which was formerly a Spiritualist campground. The author may not like it but reading it I got notes of Donna Tartt, shades of the Gothic, a slight whiff of Patrick Modiano. One reviewer wrote online ‘The narrative unfolds in waves, never quite giving you firm ground’, and that’s good enough for me. Many of you will of course know Dwyer’s previous books, An Honest Living (2022) set among Manhattan’s bibliophile community – a definitely criminal bunch!) and The Stolen Coast (2023), which also just happens to take place out of season along the Massachusetts coast, with retired spooks and hustlers clustering together. And it’s hard not to see Martha’s Vineyard and the coastal towns around Massachusetts a lot like that – clusters of the odd, the slightly outside and the reclusive perhaps escaping from, or getting into, trouble.
