Death on a Winter Stroll

In December, Nantucket would be desolate and bleak, except for the Christmas Stroll event—the first since Covid began—which lends the town a festive air in Mathews’s knotty seventh Merry Folger mystery (after 2020’s Death on Tuckernuck). Two disparate groups arrive on the island: the Secretary of State and her family, and a cast and crew filming a murder mystery TV show. Merry, recently promoted to police chief, is tasked with assisting the security detail for Madam Secretary and keeping the Stroll running smoothly. When two dead bodies are found, Merry and Howie Seitz, recently promoted to Merry’s old detective job, must uncover the web of connections among the murder victims, the many visitors, and island denizens, including a National Geographic photographer-naturalist. The solve depends on a fairly simple, conventional clue, but many of the character motivations are both complex and coherent. The Secretary’s seemingly feckless stepson befriends the TV star’s daughter, and their tender, genuine relationship steals the emotional show. Fresh, well-wrought prose brings the setting of Nantucket to life. Mathews consistently entertains. Agent: Raphael Sagalyn, Sagalyn Literary. (Nov.)