[.ca] A Deadly Vineyard Holiday (ISBN 038073110X)

Shore fishing, clambakes, beer, sunsets, murder and vacation:
The sleuth lives a lifestyle I relish and admire. An ex-cop living on Martha's Vinyard spendind his days fishing, digging for clams, and walking the beach. His nights are spent with his beautiful wife, sipping on cold Sam Adams while watching the sun go down over the Nantucket sound. Everthing is how it should be until they're asked to hide the President's daughter from would be assasins. The plot is nothing special, but "Craig's" descriptions of Island Living and contentment made me wish I was in a hammock with an ale in my belly. Craig will take ten pages to describe the beauty of the shore at sunrise while you're fishing for Bluefish, "oh by the way, the killer is in his car watching from across the street". A wonderful lazy-day read.

Not exactly a literary masterpiece, but a decent read:
This is the first of several Craig books that I have read. Walking down the street in my hometown of Washington, DC, I saw the book in the window of a local bookstore that specializes in Mystery Books. Needing a new book, and being a regular Vineyarder since I was a toddler, I decided to buy it. The book is rich with Vineyard references, many of which will only be fully understood by those of us who frequent or live on the island. The problem with this, as with the rest of Craig's books is that I have found myself reading his work only because it is set on Martha's Vineyard. The storylines often vary between unbelievable and uninteresting. The dialogue is downright awful and incredibly trite. Still, Craig has a Grisham-esque ability to make you turn the pages. The plot is simple enough to follow, without being idiotic, even if you have to strech to believe both that a retired Boston cop would be entrusted with the care of a president's daughter over the Secret Service, and the reason for it, which you'll need to read, otherwise it's a major spoiler.