To the Editor:
Readers of the Martha’s Vineyard Times may remember how warmly and charitably Jack Shea reviewed my fiction. He had my back, as the other Vineyard weekly did not. Jack would call me before he wrote a review, and ask me where a character, or a scene, or a situation had come from. We would talk about plot and dialogue. He was both probing and wise. He understood that a local newspaper ought, as a matter of policy, look favorably on local writers.
Jack loved the work of George V. Higgins, and so do I, among other shared affections. You were a good friend, Jack, to a writer who needed you. Wherever you are, enjoy it.
John Hough
West Tisbury