"Out Cold"
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Another good book
by Tapply. His
style and quick
wit make the
story go much
more fun.
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Brady Coyne is a Boston attorney, whose routine legal work and sedate lifestyle usually keep him far away from trouble. Unfortunately, one cold January morning, trouble comes to him.
When Brady lets his dog out into the backyard of his Back Bay brownstone, he finds a girl buried under the snow in Brady's back yard.
A teenager, maybe 15 or 16, who had apparently crawled into the backyard, bleeding, in the middle of the night, only to die from hypothermia and blood loss. The singular clue to her identity is a small piece of paper with the brownstone's address scribbled on it.
Now Brady is determined to find out who the girl was, why she had his address, and what happened to her. But the mysterious girl's death is only the beginning - someone out there knows Brady is trying to find out what happened that night and is willing to do anything, or kill anyone, to keep the truth from coming out.
"A Fine Line"
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Brady is at his
best in this book.
The ending will
shock everyone.
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Walt Duffy spent his life traveling the world, documenting the beauty and wonder of nature through the lens of a camera. But there was nothing natural about the ugly way he died, his skull fractured by an unknown assailant, his broken body left sprawled right in his own backyard.
The irony wasn't lost on Boston attorney Brady Coyne. He first met Duffy while handling his divorce a decade earlier, and their relationship evolved into a working friendship.
He knew Duffy well, or so Brady thought. That belief is about to be put to the test when Coyne is brought in for questioning by both the local police and the FBI, who reveal Duffy's ties to a notorious ecoterrorist group that is currently setting fires to homes and offices around the Boston area.
And when Brady begins to get mysterious calls in the middle of the night, warning of the next fire to be set, he knows that he has become an unwilling pawn in a chess game with the deadliest of consequences.
"Gray Ghost" |
Lots of mystery
in this book, and
it moves quickly
and with superior
pacing.
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Seven years ago, Stoney Calhoun woke up in a VA hospital with no memories. He still remembers nothing from before then, except that he has a few unexplained skills--a gift for angling, an ability to read French--and recently it's been made clear to him that it would be best if he never does.
Working as a guide on Casco Bay, Stoney is out with a client on an early morning fly fishing expedition when they find the charred remains of a recent corpse on a small, uninhabited island. A couple of days later, Calhoun's client turns up in the driveway of Stoney's cabin in the woods--shot dead in the front seat of his SUV.
In the midst of a couple of inexplicable murders, both of which clearly have something to do with Stoney, past or present, it's up to him find out the truth...or risk becoming the next victim.
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I read this book in
one day. I had a
notion who the
perps were about
two-thirds of the
way, but it took
a bit of figuring.
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Boston attorney Brady Coyne has a generally placid life with a nice house, a stable relationship, and the occasional fishing trip with old friends.
But one balmy June evening, that quiet life begins to fall apart after Brady receives a frantic phone call from his friend and client Dalton Lancaster. Dalt is in the emergency room, having been severely beaten by a group of thugs who warned him that he has a week to pay off his debt.
Even worse, the message comes directly from Paulie Russo, the head of the Boston mob. Dalt swears he has no such debt, but when Brady tries to intercede, Russo lets him know he is holding Brady responsible for his client's obligation.
Then Dalt disappears and no one seems to know whether he's fled for his life or been murdered -- until the ransom demand arrives.While Brady tries to rescue Dalt, and himself, from the escalating situation, his live-in girlfriend Evie buys a one-way ticket to California to care for her dying father, leaving Brady to wonder when -- or if -- she will return.
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If I had a rating
higher than this,
I would give it to
this book. A
real page-turner.
|
"Bitch Creek"
William G. Tapply has created a fresh new world in Bitch Creek, a steamy, perfectly crafted mystery introducing Stoney Calhoun, an unlikely hero.
Stoney is a man without a past. A tragic event has obliterated his memory and he has been given-as so many might like to receive-a chance to reinvent himself. That's not an easy task when a man doesn't know anything about himself, except that he is smart and utterly self-reliant.
Stoney is driven by a current from within. He has settled in Maine and has become a fishing guide, and he's busy reeducating himself. He's also in love, and he is slowly coming to terms with the sometimes ghostly glimpses of his past. Life is sweet, until someone close to him is murdered, and Stoney suspects that he himself was the intended target.
In a riveting process of investigation and self-discovery, Stoney delves deep into the mysteries of the murder and begins, unwittingly, to uncover vital truths about himself.
In Bitch Creek, Tapply has created a unique and intensely likable protagonist. He has fashioned an ingenious plot that exquisitely unfolds along with simultaneous layers of personality and intrigue.
With stunning surprises and dead-on dialogue, Bitch Creek will be hailed, along with Stoney Calhoun, as Tapply's latest brilliant creation.
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This story kept me
interested to the final
surprise ending. I will
read many more of
Tapply's books.
|
Boston attorney Brady Coyne has just received a call from Jimmy D'Ambrosio, a Democratic party kingmaker and acting campaign manager for prosecutor Ellen Stoddard, who's running for a Senate seat.
She's got a real shot at becoming the state's first woman to hold the post, except for one thing: her husband Albert, a college professor and Brady's occasional fishing partner, has been acting strangely, and now he's disappeared altogether.
D'Ambrosio wonders if Albert's having a romantic dalliance with a coed, or if some other scandal is threatening to break. Either way, the campaign can't be involved, so he wants Coyne to investigate and keep any threatening skeletons locked firmly away in the closet.
But after Coyne uncovers evidence of a murder, D'Ambrosio claims client-attorney privilege and threatens to have him disbarred if he leaks a word of the case to anyone.
Brady refuses to drop the case, and follows the trail to the little town of Southwick, New Hampshire, where an idyllic façade hides a terrible secret. And as the campaign draws to a climax, it seems that Brady Coyne has just been elected most likely to be the next to die.
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So glad to find this
author. He has scads
of novels to read,
and I can hardly wait.
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Augustine Shaw was a notable photo-journalist, happily married with two small children – until he returned from a stint in Iraq missing a hand and suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Now he’s lost his career, his peace of mind and his family.
Brady is hired to seem him through the divorce. The client wasn’t eager to accept Brady’s representation, but before the divorce proceedings are very far along, the photographer is found dead in his rented apartment, an apparent suicide.
But something isn’t right and Brady starts to think the suicide was staged. With very little to go on and with everyone around him wanting to quickly close the books on what appears to be a tragic case, Brady soon finds himself alone, in the midst of one of the most dangerous situations of his entire life, and facing people who do anything to avoid being exposed.
A 1963 Harvard graduate, he was variously a high school history teacher, director of economic studies, housemaster, editorial associate, writing instructor, contributing editor for Field and Stream and a special correspondent for American Angler.
In addition to his prolific magazine writing, Tapply authored numerous fiction and non-fiction books, publishing more than 40 books in 25 years.
He is perhaps most well-known for his mystery series featuring Brady Coyne, a Boston attorney who becomes a crime solver for his wealthy clientele. Coyne has been called “a skillful blend of amateur versus professional, serious versus frivolous, and intellectual versus physical.”
Coyne also views his career as a means to finance his avocation, fly fishing, which was Tapply’s great love and the subject of several of his nonfiction works.
Tapply has been commended for writing “quietly and perceptively” and having excellent narrative skills. He also has been called “among the smoothest storytellers around--his books glide along quickly and effortlessly.” Tapply was reluctant to call his books mystery novels. “I write novels that, like most worthwhile novels, contain mysteries. I try to avoid formulas, although I suppose with a series character like Brady Coyne I have conceded that much.”
