Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Francine Mathews--Death on Tuckernuck

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I am a huge fan of anything Francine Mathews writes! Some of you may know her as Stephanie Barron, author of the Jane Austen Mysteries, as well as That Churchill Woman, and the wonderful historical standalones, The White Garden and Flaw in the Blood

But I've know Francine longest as the author of the contemporary Nantucket Mysteries, featuring Nantucket police detective Merry Folger. Death on Tuckernuck is the sixth and newest book in the series.  



The Washington Post says of it, "A mystery that’s so suspenseful it’s hard not to skip a chapter to see if certain deeply likable characters are still alive . . . The novel lives and breathes New England island life, with a plot brimming with the best kinds of rude surprises," and I totally agree! Here's Francine to share her inspiration for this suspenseful and atmospheric mystery.




A VERY PRIVATE MURDER:

DEATH ON TUCKERNUCK ISLAND



     I am emphatically not a morning person. And that Wednesday in July I was doubly groggy from waking every hour the previous night, in a subliminal terror that I might oversleep. So as I turned my rental car into the Madaket road and headed for Hither Creek at seven-thirty a.m., coffee cup at the ready, I plugged a vague address into my phone’s GPS app just to be certain I arrived where I needed to be.

Jackson Point, on the western end of Nantucket Island.

There was a boat waiting there I couldn’t afford to miss, owned by a man I’d never met, and had only spoken to once. If I got lost or didn’t appear by eight a.m., he’d leave me behind without a second thought. He’d agreed only reluctantly to make room for a passenger on his morning run across Madaket Harbor, and he’d probably be relieved if I didn’t show. I was determined that wouldn’t happen. I’d been trying to catch this boat for the better part of a year.

I write a series of detective novels set on Nantucket, featuring a woman police detective named Meredith Folger. I’d researched five novels in this idyllic setting, part historic New England whaling town and part sybaritic playground, but this morning I was on a mission to get off the island and onto neighboring Tuckernuck--a scrap of sand nine hundred acres round that sits in the Atlantic a mile and a half from Nantucket’s left coast. There is no public ferry between the town of Madaket and Tuckernuck’s Lagoon, as it’s called, where a handful of boats are moored. 


Neither is there any public access, per se, on Tuckernuck itself. The place is entirely owned by the few families that have passed down houses through multiple generations. There are no paved roads, no beach stands or coffee shops, no gas station or package store, no roadside shack selling sand spades and boogie boards. No restaurant or art gallery. No electrical grid. No public water. Not much cell phone coverage, and next to no internet. It is a place of generators and oil stoves, the night sky brilliant with stars.



And unlike nearby Nantucket, there are no tourists or day trippers on Tuckernuck. The island is intensely private, and its residents are fiercely protective of their peace and isolation. To set foot on the Lagoon’s gantry dock or one of Tuckernuck’s beaches, one must be a resident or an invited guest.

I, of course, was neither.

I was mounting what we used to call, in my old days as a CIA analyst, an Intel Op. I was deliberately penetrating a Denied Area with the goal of collecting privileged information. I was, in short, a writer determined to research the perfect location for a murder. And I had gone to idiotic efforts to make it happen.

The previous summer, I’d appeared at the Nantucket Book Festival and cheerfully announced in my author presentation that I wanted access to Tuckernuck, hoping some local reader would be thrilled to arrange it for me.

No one was thrilled.

I’d queried Nantucket friends, residents with boats, about taking me over. All of them looked leery. “It’s private property, you know,” they said. “You’ll really can’t go out there.”

In Colorado that winter, I contacted a friend with the last name of Coffin, whose ancestors were some of the first people to build houses on Tuck early two hundred years ago. He’d never been there himself. But he had a few friends who’d summered there all their lives. He gave me their names and email addresses. Slowly, gradually, I formed a network of people whose memories I could tap, whose teenage experiences threw light on a community so cut off from the rest of the world it might as well have been Everest.



One of them, in turn, gave me a phone number for a guy named Manny. He was a Caretaker, she said. Or in another words, a man with a boat and the keys to Tuckernuck’s kingdom.

Caretakers are professionals who sustain life on Tuckernuck. They are hired by the small island’s residents to spend a good part of their lives from mid-May to mid-October ferrying everything necessary for a comfortable existence between Jackson Point and the Lagoon. This includes blankets, toilet paper, strawberries, cases of wine, rose bushes, lawn mowers, steaks, tonic water, limes, solar panels, Portuguese bread, propane, gin, patio umbrellas, sacks of dog food, lawn chairs, milk, pate, and paint. Anything you might consider necessary for happiness, including the one-hundred and twenty-five guests you invited to your Tuckernuck wedding, can be transported by a Caretaker’s boat, and then removed—along with your week’s worth of trash and your dead wedding bouquets.

The Caretakers are people of deep and hard-won institutional knowledge. Tuckernuck is surrounded by constantly shifting shoals of sand, so unpredictable and wayward that they are merely dotted lines on nautical charts. To navigate the channel into the Lagoon is a tricky and oft-revised endeavor, best accomplished by those who tackle it daily. The Coast Guard avoids Tuckernuck; the draft of its boats is too deep. There is no fire department or police presence on the barrier island, no EMTs. Consider, then, what happens in an emergency—medical, or otherwise. A fire, perhaps, or an act of violence. A sudden stroke in the brain or a clot in an artery. Each trip between Tuckernuck and Madaket takes roughly twenty minutes, in good weather. Call it an hour by boat to the hospital in the best of circumstances.

But what, my feverish imagination asked, about a crisis in the worst of circumstances? --A vessel grounded on one of Tuckernuck’s shoals, say, as a hurricane bore down on New England?

--And what if there was a body in that boat?

How would the police respond, in the form of Meredith Folger?

And what would happen when a crime scene was set adrift in a gale?

This is how writers amuse themselves. How we pass the time. But Caretakers? They’re the ones who answer cries for help. Who stand between life and death. Who might get marooned with a killer in the midst of a natural disaster.



I left my car in the unpaved beach permit lot. There were only two boats idling off the landing. One was a local sportfisherman’s, calibrating the best spot to drop anchor. The other was a scuffed, well-used, and perfectly ordinary aluminum working boat with an outboard motor lowered for action. A guy in a gray sweatshirt was shifting gear around the bow.

“Are you Manny?” I called out to him, breathless.

He shook his head. “I’m George.” In his broad New England accent, it came out as Geoahrge. “Manny’s my brother.”

“He agreed to take me to Tuckernuck.”

“Oh, yeah?” George surveyed me speculatively. “Who you going to see?”

I uttered a name. George shook his head. “He’s not there. Left Saturday.”

“I know,” I attempted. “He offered to rent me a cottage. I’m  going over to look at it.”



“Yeah?” George was persistently skeptical. “What are you gonna do over there?”

“Walk to the house.”

“You know there are people living in it now, right? You can’t bother them.”

“Absolutely not.”

“You can’t just walk around. It’s all private property.”

Yes, I knew.

I subsided meekly on the dock, pacing while I drank my coffee. George heaved empty trash bins into the belly of his craft. Every scrap of garbage generated on Tuck has to be carried back by boat and then trucked to the Nantucket landfill. The smell of diesel fuel and brine rose from the pilings. A gull or two dipped its wings overhead. Then Manny arrived, all grizzled beard and swordfisher’s cap thrust back on his mane of hair, and studied me with his brother’s blunt speculation.

“Who you going out there to see, again?” he asked.

I muttered the name.

Manny scratched his head and gazed out over the harbor at the thin graphite smudge on the horizon that was Tuckernuck. “Don’t look in any windows or walk down any driveways. Don’t bother anybody. We’ll take you off at noon. Got it?”

I got it. I scrambled onto the middle seat of the boat and tried to look as small as possible. George cast off the painter while Manny fired up the motor. And then the boat backed and turned with a wave for the neighboring fisherman, and we headed out to sea.




What remains in my memory now of those hours on Tuckernuck is the eeriness of the empty landscape. Colonies of birds in the thousands, screaming above the eggs they’d laid in the sand and dune grasses. A white-tailed deer; a lone heron in the marsh; a snake slithering across the sandy track beneath my feet. The desolation of an abandoned house, engulfed in decades of scrub oak and rugosa. The wind, and the echoing impression of silence when it dropped. 



I walked the entire perimeter of the island and much of the interior, and encountered only a single other soul, as lost and out of her depth as I was. But I returned to downtown Nantucket that night with a vivid mental notebook of impressions and anecdotes imparted by Manny and George. I had only to mention, on our return trip to Jackson Point, that I’d worked as a nanny on the island forty years before, and suddenly, I was acceptable—a working stiff, too, who like them had catered to Summer People. They unbent and told me a few things about their lives. How they, too, owned a second home on Tuckernuck, along with the fleet of boats that serviced its residents; how deep the Milky Way could be on clear nights; how precious the isolation and peace could seem, in the height of Nantucket’s tourist frenzy. Manny and George gave me passage to the forbidden place, yes, but they gave me something more valuable—the stuff of character. Months later, writing Death on Tuckernuck in a Colorado winter, it was the Caretakers who’d lasted.

I hope they and their remarkable island come as much alive in the pages of my latest book, for you.


More about Death on Tuckernuck: In the Category 3 winds of a late-season hurricane, Nantucket police detective Merry Folger and her team attempt a rescue off the secluded island of Tuckernuck—only to discover a deadly secret.
As a hurricane bears down on Nantucket, Dionis Mather and her father have their work cut out for them. Their family business is to ferry goods and people back and forth from Tuckernuck, the private island off Nantucket’s western tip, a place so remote and exclusive that it is off the electric grid. As caretakers of the small plot of sand in the middle of the Atlantic, the Mathers are responsible for evacuating Tuckernuck’s residents. But as the storm surge rises and the surf warnings mount, Dionis has to make a choice: abandon whatever—or whoever—was left behind, or risk her own life by plunging back into the maelstrom. Even she has no idea what evil the hurricane is sheltering.
When the coast guard notifies the Nantucket police of a luxury yacht grounded in the shoals off Tuckernuck’s northern edge—with two shooting victims lying in the main cabin—detective Meredith Folger throws herself into an investigation before the hurricane sweeps all crime-scene evidence out to sea. Merry is supposed to be on leave this weekend, dancing at her own wedding, but the Cat 3 has thrown her blissful plans into chaos. As her battered house fills with stranded wedding guests and flood waters rise all over Nantucket Island, Merry has her own choice to make: How much should she risk in order to bring a criminal to justice?

DEBS: Reds and readers, would you want to spend a long summer in such an isolated place?

Comment below to be eligible for this fab giveaway from Francine!

Signed trade paperbacks of the previous 5 books in the series
A Women’s size M Nantucket Beach Permit T-shirt
A jar of Bartlett’s Farm Beach Plum jelly
12 oz. Nantucket CoffeeRoasters Sconset Blend
A Beach Sign key fob from iconic Murray’s Toggery
A shatterproof thumbprint wine glass with a silhouette of Nantucket.

 


 
 Francine Mathews, who also writes as Stephanie Barron, is the author of 29 novels of mystery, espionage, and historical fiction. A former intelligence analyst at the CIA, she lives and writes in Colorado. DEATH ON TUCKERNUCK is available now from Soho Crime.

71 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your new book, Francine . . . I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how Meredith solves this case!
    Tuckernuck sounds like quite a place . . . imagine the stories it could tell.

    Would I like to spend a long summer in such an isolated place? It depends. If I had to be alone, then definitely not. But if my family went along, it sounds absolutely perfect . . . .

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    1. Lots of board games in the evenings in the absence of TV, Joan!

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  2. Congrats on the new book!

    I feel like I spent Spring in an isolated place, and I'm ready for some company again. I don't think I could spend that kind of time in an isolated place ever again.

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  3. Wow, Francine, that is quite an adventure to get access to such as isolated place as Tuckernuck!

    Would I want to spend a long summer in such an isolated place? Probably not all summer long, but a long weekend there would be good. I am comfortable living alone. I like my solitude but I also hate being dependent on others. Having to rely on the Tuckernuck caretakers to provide all my essentials and access on and off the island would be too restrictive for me!

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  4. Francine this is fabulous - and a testament to how persistent we writers have to be!

    I visited Gott's Island in Maine several times with a boyfriend. The landscape runs more to trees and rocks, but the setup is identical. We had to send Russy Gott (a gruff, scruffy true Mainer) a postcard telling him when we wanted to go over in his mail boat. The family's garden cart waited near the island's dock and we hauled our bread and bourbon across to the opposite side. The kitchen had a pump in the sink and the double outhouse faced the water - without doors. It was peaceful and a little freaky.

    I didn't write fiction back then, but thank you for reminding me of Gott's Island - maybe I'll send a character up there one of these years...

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    1. Envy you the experience, Edith. On Tuck, the caretakers have a few ancient cars, but have to haul gas in containers for them. Most schlepping is done by generator-rechargeable golf carts.

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  5. Congrats on the new book Francine!

    While I would not want to spend a long time in an isolated spot, I do plan to read about it through DEATH ON TUCKERNUCK. I haven't picked the book up yet, but it is on the to buy list. I have the other five books in the series.

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  6. Ooh! I cannot wait to read this one! I've had it on my shelf since the day it came out but I have put off reading it because then I won't have it to look forward to> Does that make any sense at all? For my entire life I have wanted to live on an island and it is only recently that I began to understand that would probably mean no well, no electricity, no septic system, no nothin'. But I would still like to at least visit for a few weeks or so.

    I have loved all of the Merry Folger books and I'm sure I will love this one too.

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    1. You can absolutely visit Nantucket without privation, LOL, and there is one Air BnB on Tuck....

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    2. An Air B&B? I'm surprised the other residents don't protest! I'll bet it's really expensive, too...

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  7. Another new character for me to add to my TBR list. Thank you!

    As for living on an island as off the grid as Tuckernuck, hmmmmm -- as Grace says, it's hard for me to think about being so reliant on others for every last little thing, including taking the human-generated garbage off the island by boat. I think I might like to experience it, though I would want to know that I was the ONLY person there -- and I would definitely want to know that no baddies were lurking in the shadows. My imagination would undo me otherwise and I wouldn't sleep a wink.

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    1. During the summer months, there are roughly 40 houses with occupants on Tuckernuck. But they do tend to keep themselves to themselves.

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  8. Francine, the desolation certainly comes across in this post!

    Would I want to spend a weekend there? Sure. A long summer? No. Like Mark, I've done that at home this spring and I really am ready for some company that is not my family.

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    1. That’s the beauty of Armchair Travel, Liz! Thank god for books...

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  9. Francine, welcome to JRW and congratulations on your latest book! Deb, thanks for introducing us to one of your favorite authors. Her books are going straight onto the TBR list today!

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  10. Congratulations on Death on Tuckernuck Francine. I love islands and seas . I'm looking forward to discover what came of your experiment when I'll read your book.
    I had one of the best week of my life on Norfolk Island , a very little island in South Pacific but not as isolated as Tuckernuck. The people there were eagerly waiting for the replenishment's boat that come every few months as many things were missing on the island.
    However, I remember a week in the woods, two hours from civilization. We had everything we needed but I worried all week about what if something bad happened to my husband or daughter ? I didn't feel safe and never returned.
    If I had to choose, I would definitely prefer isolation on an island.

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    1. That’s fascinating, Danielle. I hope you have passed on that memory toyour family.

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  11. Somehow I've missed Meredith and plan to remedy that pronto, Francine! The set-up is just begging for a mystery. A series of mysteries even. Love the atmosphere induced by place and characters. Would I want this for myself? No. I like exploring new places, I don't mind being alone, but there are certain creature comforts I prefer. Plumbing, for example. Internet. A reliable way to go where I want/need to go that doesn't depend on other people.

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  12. Congrats on your new release! Chatham on Cape Cod has a similar South Beach, only accessible by boat or over the sand (by permit) from Nauset. Not houses, more like fishing camps. I'd live there in a heartbeat, as long as the weather held. Hurricane Bob was a Cat One in 1991, not an experience I'm anxious to repeat.

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    1. Yes, Margaret, three of my sisters live on the Cape, and I remember well when the Outer Beach broke and houses washed away. Unbelievable and awe-inspiring.

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  13. HI, Francine! Waving!! Islands are so perfect as settings for crime novels... so many built in features like the landscape, isolation, fragility, exposure to weather, family feuds... It's amazing how research can lead to all kinds of plot twists and characters that the writer didn't see coming.

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    1. Exactly, Hallie. You can’t imagine the actual experience or anticipate your discoveries. You have to GO.

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  14. The backstory of this book is fascinating, Francine, almost as much as the premise. You've sure piqued my interest!

    The lack of communication in such a remote place would be the stopper for me. I'm fine with being on my own, especially if there are brilliant stars in the offing, but I need to be able to touch base with my peeps once in awhile. It makes you realize, doesn't it, how lucky we are today, even with all the recent isolation, to have that ability at nearly any time. It's made a huge difference these last few months.

    Friends have summered in remote places in Alaska, or even wintered somewhere in the Berkshires in a cabin with no running water. And then I think of Marcia Talley, in a little house on stilts in the ocean. How they manage is a mystery on its own.

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    1. I think it helps to be, as I am, an introvert. But even I like the sound of another human voice at least once every 24 hours.

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  15. Francine: I have just downloaded the Kindle edition of the first Merry Folger book in your series. What a fascinating introduction you have written to this 2015 version of the story that was originally published in 1994. I will first read the revised edition and then see if I can track down the original version; it would be so interesting to see how you reshaped the story and characters to fit the re-issue 20 years later.

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    1. Amanda, I have the original four books:-)

      Francine is on Colorado time, but I'm hoping when she stops in that she'll tell that story. I think what she's done with these books is fascinating.

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    2. Deborah: I agree -- fascinating! Can't wait to dig in and experience it for myself.

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    3. Amanda, when Soho approached me to reissue the first four books, they asked for a fifth novel in the series (and now a sixth and seventh.) But there had been a twenty-year lapse in the lives of the characters. I did NOT want to pick up with them in their fifties, nor did I want to set the next book back in the 90s—it wasn’t a great era for criminal detection. No searchable crime databases, no DNA analysis, no cell phones, no email...and Nantucket itself had changed significantly. For example, there was a new police station in an entirely different location! Which meant Merry was never where she was supposed to be! I felt the books were dated, and would confuse current visitors to the island. So I revised the first four books in the series and brought them up to the present, before writing the latest additions in recent years. The originals were never formatted for digital download, so the ebooks are uniformly the revised editions.

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    4. Stephanie/Francine: Thank you for that info. Soooo interesting! I just love knowing the background to authors' work.

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    5. My first book was published the year before Francine's first Nantucket book, and although I've pretty much floated them in time, the anachronisms bother me. But I can't imagine the task of bringing them all up to date!

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    6. But I think the critical difference, Debs, is that your readers have followed Duncan and Gemma and their wonderful community of fellow-travelers throughout a consistently sustained series, so the progression in time is completely comfortable. It was the two-decade hiatus, in this case, I just couldn't get past as a writer.

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  16. Congratulations on the new book, Francine. I have read several of your previous books, and am still pondering the questions raised by Flaw in the Blood. Your Nantucket series sounds like great fun!

    Up until about 10 years ago, I lived out in an unincorporated area of rural west Texas, which was pretty remote, although we did have phones and rudimentary internet access. That was isolated enough for me, thanks. I might take a weekend in a place like Tuckernuck, but I wouldn't want to spend all summer there. Do people spend long periods of time there now, or do they just go out for a week or a weekend? Are members of the younger generation as enthusiastic as their parents and grandparents were? It seems to me like this would be a way of life that is endangered.

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    1. The families that own Tuck are also intermarried, in some cases, through generations, Gigi. But yes, bequeathing such a home is tricky. If the heirs cannot agree on keeping it, a large parcel sometimes is offered for sale. The homeowners association sometimes manages to buy it, and retain control—applying a conservation easement, and leaving it as open space. But I suspect increasingly that option will be hard to maintain. I foresee a time when the isolation and privilege Tuckernuck offers becomes the plaything of the ultra rich, who can land helicopters on their properties and fly in household staff to meet their needs. At that point, everything changes.

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    2. So interesting, and it seems like it would be such a shame for that to happen.

      I loved reading the background on the characters, Francine, as Dionis and her father are such compelling characters.

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    3. And speaking of previous books, I want to reread The White Garden, which is one of my very favorites. Hmm, wonder where my copy is....

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    4. Speaking of gardens, Debs, I just got a copy of The Gardens of Bunny Mellon off abebooks. Completely escapist. I'm calling it research.

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  17. Good Morning Francine: Like Amanda I just downloaded book one of Merry's stories. I couldn't resist jumping to book 6, Tuckernuck was so tempting.

    Would I live in isolation for a summer? If: I could still see the world with the eyes of a child. If I had means to communicate with the outside world in case of medical or habit emergency. If I had a purpose for being isolated. If I had an abundance. The yes I would retreat and live off the grid. One of my many unwritten plots is set in a mountain cave, that is where I would live. Thanks for dropping by JRW's, enjoy the new world of virtual book tours.

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    1. make that habitat emergencies.. I could live with my embroidery habit.

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    2. I liked "habit" emergency, Coralee!

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    3. My habit is needlepoint, and it has SUSTAINED me the past three months!

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  18. I think I would summer on the island. Regular groceries deliveries wouldn't be that different from the way most of us have been living the last few months. The quiet, the stars, the birds and the beach all so very appealing. Would I get any more writing done, I wonder?

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    1. I agree, Debs. The silver lining would be writing JUST ENOUGH to get a few pages per day without depleting the generator with your computer, LOL. Built-in work/play balance

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    2. I can write for a couple of hours on a charged battery! It occurred to me, however, that I am always looking up London things, using Google Maps, etc. (What did I ever do without Google Maps??)

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  19. Your persistence in getting to the island is a story all by itself! I find some things very appealing about living in such an isolated place. But, I don't want to have to rely completely on others for everything. And I would hope there is some socializing going on. Just a little. No big parties. The setting sounds like the perfect storm, pun intended, for murder.

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    1. My thinking entirely, Pat.
      The truth is that the families that live on Tuck have been closely associated for generations, and yes, they socialize in many instances together. It's definitely a community--albeit one that an outsider might find difficult to crack.

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  20. Oh, this is FANTASTIC. Love your writing, and your adventure, and cannot wait to read this. (My husband and I met, by chance on Nantucket, under the Perseid meteor shower. So I have some stories of my own...) SO wonderful to see you! And where would I be in isolation? Well, we go to Nevis, where there are monkeys in our back yard beaches we visit are empty as far as you can see. (As long as there's internet, I am fine.)

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    1. Hank, I also love the southern coast of Oregon, which I visit during September. It feels on the edge of nowhere, and for anyone who loves solitude, it offers a lot. INCLUDING INTERNET. Which I agree is critical!

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  21. Francine/Stephanie, welcome to JRW and congratulations on your new novel! The excerpt reminded me of Agatha Christie's AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, meaning that both islands were isolated!

    Since I Already won your giveaway of ALL of the Nantucket mysteries, I want to give someone else a chance to win your book.

    The name Mathers reminded me of a real person who is a Deaf man, also a practicing attorney. His wife and children all are Deaf.

    Interesting how I find names of fictional characters resembling names of real people I know about.

    Your question about isolated islands - my grandparents owned a private island in the Great Lakes between Illinois and Canada. There were Native American Indians already living on the island. And yes, they stayed on the island. My grandfather loved going to the island. My grandmother was Not a fan since she wanted to go to the hair salon and have her hair done. She preferred the city. The kids loved the island, though.

    On another note, I loved THAT CHURCHILL WOMAN.

    Diana

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    1. So glad to hear you've enjoyed my work, Diana, and congrats again on winning a previous giveaway~maybe your luck will rub off on someone here!
      It sounds like you have a lot of stories of your own worth setting down on paper.

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  22. As long as there are other people, like local residents, I would be fine.

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  23. Wow. Good for you for managing to visit the island.
    It sounds fascinating.
    That is quite a give away collection!

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    1. Just some of Merry Folger's favorite things, LOL!

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  24. Stephanie/Francine, your back stories are so fascinating. I'm glad I returned to JRW to read all of your responses to everyone's postings. Just the adventure of getting to the island is a story worth telling! My library system here in CT has both the older version and the newer versions of the first books. I'm going to Kindle to get the newer versions because it makes sense for the continuity of the stories. While it is interesting that some authors choose to age their protagonists, I think many of them have underestimated their own staying power and have aged their creations out of their jobs.
    Congratulations again.

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    1. Yes, Ian Rankin is a prime example, having aged Rebus into retirement, brought him back, then retired him again!

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    2. Judy, it was also instructive simply to see how my writing style and self-expression had evolved over two decades of being edited. I was appalled at my first novel, no joke. Being able to prune my purple prose was a gift before re-publication.

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  25. Francine, Tuckernuck Island sounds like the perfect setting for a murder mystery. Your story about getting to the island is itself a teaser to read the book. How fortunate that you had the nanny experience to open up the information pathway with Manny and George.

    I might enjoy a short, like a weekend, visit to an isolated island, but I'd rather have access to some restaurants and other places if I wanted to visit them. I'm not too excited about the length of time medical care takes either.

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    1. Exactly. I think I could do a week on Tuck, then hide myself away in a great Nantucket Inn for wonderful food and ample hot water in the shower!

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  26. Congratulations on the new book. It sounds like a wonderful series, and I look forward to reading it.
    I would love to be isolated on an island, but I would have to have plenty of books to read. Food delivery would also be nice.

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  27. Congratulations on your new release!
    You are a new author to me and I love discovering new authors and series. This sounds like a series I would really enjoy reading.

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  28. I think it sounds nice to get away for awhile. No work, no distractions, just me and a pile of books. My kind of vacation!
    kozo8989@hotmail.com

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    1. May you have a similar adventure in your future, Alicia.

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  29. I'd love to spend one summer there. It would be a truly unique experience. I think spending more than one summer would be difficult - what about family members who might be pregnant, elderly, etc? Although I've known some tough elderly New Englanders who spend all winter skiing - I can easily see them spending every summer on Tuckernuck and not worrying at all. Altogether, between the landscape and the people, it would be one fascinating summer.

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  30. I see a great series binge read in my future! Thank you!

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  31. Oh gosh I hope I'm not to late for the giveaway! Darn computer probs yesterday. Francine / Stephanie, I met you at Book Carnival in Orange, CA just after your first Jane Austin book was published, and have a signed copy. This one sounds wonderful, and I didn't even know of the series. I'm excited, and hopeful.

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  32. I’ve read two books so far and thoroughly enjoyed them!

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