A Plague Among Us

When Al Martin, the editor of a satiric newspaper in Chautauqua, N.Y., reportedly dies of COVID-19, the local consensus is: good riddance. A sister suspects foul play. She wonders why Al was cremated in a hurry. The police stay out of it. So it takes reporter and relentless snoop Mimi Goldman to try to find which of Al's haters -- including an estranged wife, three bitter siblings, a secretive caregiver, old enemies and the many targets of Al's poison-pen sarcasm -- might really be a ruthless killer. The novel, No. 8 in a series called an "Agatha Christie for the test-message age," once again offers page-turning suspense. Wit. History. And the unforgettable setting of Chautauqua, a quirky, churchy, lakeside, cottage-filled summer arts community that launched an adult-education movement Teddy Roosevelt called "the most American thing in America."