Bruce Von Stiers

Philip R. Craig has written some interesting mysteries. His stories feature Martha’s Vineyard and a guy named J.W. Jackson. William G. Tapply also has written interesting mysteries. His stories involve Boston attorney Brady Coyne. Now, for the first time, the two writers have gotten together to write a novel featuring both of these fictional detectives. The title of the book is First Light. It was published by Scribners.

The book is laid out so that one chapter is from J.W.’s narrative view and the next one will be from Brady. The chapters kind of overlap each other with story content, but that keeps you up with what’s going on with each character.

There is an annual fishing derby on Martha’s Vineyard. J.W. and his wife Zee are planning on entering in the derby. They have invited their friend Brady Coyne to join in the fishing. Brady, who never passes up an opportunity to go fishing, readily accepts.

But Brady has some things to do while out on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. He has been the attorney for Sarah Fairchild for quite a while. Now Sarah is entertaining offers to sell off her Vineyard estate. Brady is being brought in to facilitate a sale of the estate. It could be sold to a real estate development company or to an environmental group. Both of these groups have shown a keen interest in obtaining the Fairchild estate.

J.W. is being asked to look into a woman’s disappearance. Katherine Bannerman had come to Martha’s Vineyard over a year before and hadn’t been heard from since. She dropped out of sight somewhere around Labor Day. James Bannerman says that even though the marriage is over, he still loves her and just wants to talk to her. J.W. takes the case reluctantly, with the condition that if Katherine is found, she will have the option of letting her husband know where she it.

As J.W. goes throughout the island trying to find Katherine Bannerman, Brady must deal with Sarah Fairchild’s dysfunctional family. There is Eliza, Sarah’s daughter. Eliza is a forty-something woman who seems to have hot pants. She keeps flirting with Brady to see if he’ll take a bite. Then there is Eliza’s son Patrick. He seems to hate what his mother is and makes no secret of it. And there is Nate, Sarah’s son. Nate is very protective of the estate property; especially a beach that he claims as his own fishing paradise.

Brady meets Molly Wood at the Fairchild estate. She is a nurse attending to Sarah who is dying of cancer. Later, Zee tries to fix the two of them up. Brady makes a regular date with Molly. Only she doesn’t show up and appears to be missing. It is later discovered that she had the same basic physical description as Katherine Bannerman. The police get involved and it is discovered that there have been several women with that physical description who had disappeared from the island in the last few years.

The two authors throw in a few twists and turns to keep the story interesting. They lead you in one direction, only to point in an opposite direction later. I had the plot figured out and then they changed it on me. And they keep the fishing tournament as the basic backdrop that holds the characters in place. There are even a few recipes at the back of the novel for the cooking enthusiasts.

J.W. and Brady figure out the who and what of the disappearances almost simultaneously, even though they hadn’t really been working together.

First Light was a delightful mystery. It is not the first time two mystery writers have come together to do a novel together, but it is one of the best one of its type that I’ve read. I would really like to see Philip R. Craig and William G. Tapply write another one of these combined character mystery novels.