A Plague Among Us is the eighth book in Deb Pines' traditional whodunit Chautauqua Mysteries featuring the wise and witty reporter/grandma sleuth Mimi Goldman.
"An Agatha Christie for the text-message age," Indie Reader says.
It's August 2020 when Al Martin, the editor of a satiric Chautauqua newspaper, dies and is declared the summer arts community's first coronavirus death. The local consensus is: good riddance.
Shannon Martin, a sister, arrives with questions like why was Al cremated in such a hurry and who was pranking him (with near-Biblical plagues) near the end. The police stay out of it.
Reporter and relentless snoop Mimi Goldman agrees to help. But when she and Shannon unearth some ugly secrets lurking among Chautauqua's charming cottages, leafy streets and masked-for-COVID residents, Shannon flees.
So it takes Mimi, with help from her usual sidekick, 95-year-old Sylvia Pritchard, to find which of Al's many haters — including an estranged wife, three bitter siblings, a secretive caregiver, old enemies and numerous targets of his poison-pen sarcasm — might be a ruthless killer.
Fans of Agatha Christie and Louise Penny and "Only Murders in the Building" will enjoy this twist-filled mystery Kirkus Reviews calls "An intriguing and engaging crime tale with some levity to lighten the pandemic element."