10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Visit from the Easter Bunny, May 30 2005
By Karen Potts - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Vineyard Prey: A Martha's Vineyard Mystery (Hardcover)
Most of Philip Craig's Martha's Vineyard Mysteries take place in the warmer months, but in a change of pace, this one takes place in December. Just as J.W. Jackson and his family are contemplating the Christmas season, J.W. receives a visit from his old Army buddy Joe Begay, who needs some help. He wants to be picked up on Cape Cod and brought back to Martha's Vineyard without anyone seeing him. J.W. agrees to the task, without understanding why. Joe explains to him that he once did an undercover government job with a team of five people. Three of the team members have died and he is afraid that he may be next, a potential target for an assassin whose nickname is Easter Bunny. Things become even more complicated when the fifth member of the team, a woman named Kate, shows up on the Island, and there are now two people to protect. Author Craig spins a good yarn, complete with a car chase, explosions, and undercover intrigue. This is a welcome addition to the Martha's Vineyard series.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
exciting and fun mystery, May 25 2005
By Harriet Klausner - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Vineyard Prey: A Martha's Vineyard Mystery (Hardcover)
J.W. Jackson moved his family to Martha's Vineyard to get away from big city life and crime although at times the island resembles the mean city streets. As an ex-city policeman, Jackson takes care of himself which is why Joe Begay, his sergeant when they served in Vietnam, comes to him when he needs help. Jackson smuggles Joe back onto the island after he leaves it and meets up with him at a designated place in Cape Cod.
Joe works for one of the black ops organization and he and five other members of a trade delegation were able to kill two terrorists code named Rudolph and Scarecrow. The Easter Bunny got away and since that mission three of the group has been killed. Begay believes the Easter Bunny is coming after him and Kate, the other surviving member of the mission. Kate left her home after finding poisoned needles on pillows in her home. She came to Martha Vineyard's to work with Joe in taking the Easter Bunny down. Unfortunately Jackson becomes involved in their mission because the killer has linked him to Kate and Joe, putting all three of their lives in danger
VINEYARD PREY is an exciting and fun reading experience because the protagonist keeps getting pulled into a situation that he really wants no part of all the while protesting. He is happy to stay out of the fiasco and just go on with his life. Phillip K. Craig's latest work is more action-packed than usual and it is so easy to become absorbed in the plot that the everyday world fades away.
Harriet Klausner
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
left out in the cold, Dec 18 2007
By Linda Pagliuco "katknit" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Vineyard Prey: A Martha's Vineyard Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)
It's winter on the Vineyard, and though the tourists have gone, JW's peace is shattered by the violence threatened against one of his best friends. Isn't it fortunate that he can protect his wife and kids by hiding them away at one of the houses he takes care of for richer summer folk. Naturally, JW feels obligated to assist his friend, at no small risk to himself. This could be the plot of a gripping story, but alas, it's difficult to differentiate one set of killers from another, what with all the deer hunting, covert ops, and holdings at gunpoint on the part of the good guys and the bad. It's also hard to side with a protagonist who finds it necessary to belittle those whose views oppose his own (such as the "crabby, little old ladies" who work for animal rights.) But the worst flaw in Vineyard Prey lies in the character of Kate, a beautiful but arrogant and chillingly amoral secret agent with no visible redeeming qualities. It's astonishing that someone like Kate would make the stupid mistakes that she repeatedly commits. Much less be lucky enough to survive.
The descriptions of Vineyard scenery are the saving, evocative grace of this otherwise heartless novel.