West Tisbury author Cynthia Riggs will talk about her latest book Death and Honesty, the eighth in her Martha’s Vineyard mystery series, at the Chilmark Public Library on Wednesday, May 20, at 5:30 p.m.

It’s another entertaining mystery, as only Riggs can spin it, infused with the flora and fauna of Martha’s Vineyard as well as fictional composites of the locals with news topics of late jumping off the page. Death and Honesty features 92-year-old amateur sleuth Victoria Trumbull, a character based on Riggs’ late mother, the poet and author Dionis Coffin Riggs.

In this installment, Victoria discovers a neighbor’s body in the home of one of the three town assessors. The assessors have been skimming off tax money from wealthy landowners and stashing it in their own special retirement funds. Then the private pilot of the not-so-holy clergyman husband of one of these landowners is found dead, floating in his employer’s pond, his face gnawed by snapping turtles.

Finally, searching for old documents in the attic of town hall, Victoria discovers a third body, that of the long-missing assessors clerk. In order to tie all the threads together and solve the murders, she again teams up with her old friend and rival, Emery Meyer, now working as the landowner’s chauffeur.

Ms. Riggs, a 13th-generation Islander, lives in West Tisbury in her family homestead, The Cleaveland House, now a bed-and-breakfast catering to poets and writers. She has a degree in geology from Antioch College, a master’s in creative writing from Vermont College, and holds a U.S. Coast Guard Masters License (100-ton). Ms. Riggs also has five children, and 11 grandchildren.

Admission is free. Ms. Riggs will be selling and autographing books. This book talk is sponsored by the Friends of the Chilmark Public Library. For details, call 508-645-3360.