First Light

December 10, 2001
Two veteran writers who know Martha's Vineyard well bring together Boston lawyer Brady Coyne and former cop J.W. Jackson in a slow-paced but ultimately satisfying crime drama set on the island after the summer season has ended. When tough businessman Jack Bannerman's wife goes missing, he hires private detective Jackson to find her. A parallel missing person's case develops when Coyne, Jackson's buddy, arrives for a fishing derby, only to see his elderly client Sarah Fairchild's private nurse vanish mysteriously in the midst of a nasty dispute over the future of ailing Mrs. Fairchild's sizable beachfront property. Conflicts erupt as family members fight among themselves and developers clash with environmentalists, all over whether to have a golf club or wildlife preserve. When he finally speaks with the bumbling local police, Jackson has already noticed that attractive women, all blonde and in their forties, have been disappearing for years on the island. Slashed tires with a warning note and quotations from Hamlet
become important clues that eventually lead the pair of sleuths to a culprit whose guilt has been amply foreshadowed. The first-person narration that alternates between the two heroes for 26 chapters would have benefited from some variety, while the long descriptions of surf casting at morning's "first light" will appeal mostly to those who enjoy that sport. Yet we do get an intriguing and evocative picture of this high-profile vacation spot (whose presidential visits are noted in the text) in the off-season. (Jan. 8)Forecast:This collaborative effort ought to boost sales for both authors, especially if the two Massachusetts residents can coordinate on some joint local publicity and promotion.

January 1, 2002
While in Martha's Vineyard on legal business, Tapply's Brady Coyne (Past Tense) visits Craig's J.W. Jackson (Vineyard Shadows). Coyne gets caught in the crossfire between land developers and the heirs of an old lady, while Jackson searches for a missing woman. The two eventually join forces, of course, in a most captivating read.

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2001
In Craig's popular mystery series, J. W. Jackson lives on Martha's Vineyard with his two small and engaging children and his beautiful and all-too-competent wife, Zee. Shades of his investigatory past occasionally darken his domestic bliss, as happens here in a tale told in alternating chapters by J. W and Brady Coyne, Boston lawyer and star of his own series by coauthor Tapply. A bit rumpled and shopworn but smart and savvy, Brady comes to the Vineyard to serve an elderly client whose land is being sought by developers and conservationists. His real reason for coming to the Vineyard, however, is to participate in a bluefish derby with the Jacksons. But a woman has disappeared, and soon another does, a colleague of Zee's. Local lore, the lure of fishing, and the minutiae of parenting, preparing meals, and patient investigation almost balance the increasingly tense search for the women, which ends in an ugly and shocking denouement. Expect interest from fans of both series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)