From Publishers Weekly
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.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
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 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
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. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
While visiting Martha's Vineyard to help a client write her will, Brady Coyne visit's an old friend J.W. Jackson. Brady quickly discovers that more than a few people are after the estate of his client. The two eventually join forces, and solve both cases in this captivating first book.


Download Description
When two acclaimed crime novelists and fishing buddies, Philip R. Craig and William G. Tapply, join their remarkable talents, it's the best of both worlds for readers of the first ever Brady Coyne/J. W. Jackson mystery. It's September on Martha's Vineyard, and J.W. is contemplating the serious matter of a tree house for his children and some good fishing in the annual striped bass and bluefish derby with his friend, Boston lawyer Brady Coyne, who'll be on the island to help the elderly Sarah Fairchild write her will. J.W. has a little business, too, having reluctantly agreed to spend some of his valuable surf casting time trying to find a missing woman named Katherine Bannerman, who was last seen on the island a year ago. For Brady and J.W. it'll be law and detecting during the day, but by night they will roam the far Vineyard beaches in search of prizewinning catches. But soon another woman goes missing, a local bully threatens both Brady and J.W., and Brady discovers that more than a few people desperately crave his client's estate. With two hundred acres of pristine Vineyard land in a frail, elderly woman's control, the stakes are high. For J.W., his case gets personal when someone slashes his wife's tires. As J.W. prowls the Vineyard's villages in search of the slasher and the two missing women and Brady defends his client's interests against an array of warring factions, the two friends come to suspect that a killer is loose on the island. What they do not know is that they themselves will soon be in danger. People are not always what they seem, and there are snakes under the rocks, even in Eden. By turns charming and suspenseful, contemporary and evocative, First Light could only have been imagined in the collective mind of these two superb authors. Includes three recipes.