Close to the Bone

Close to the Bone

William G. Tapply

William G. Tapply

A fellow lawyer disappears from his boat, and Brady suspects foul playAlthough alleged criminals are considered innocent until proven guilty, acquittal doesn't make them saints. Boston lawyer Brady Coyne knows this all too well, but believes firmly enough in the right to counsel that he doesn't let it keep him up at night. His friend Paul Cizek, however, is another story. A rising young defense lawyer, Paul has made a name defending repugnant clients: hit men, child molesters, unrepentant drunk drivers. He's good at what he does—so good that it's eating him alive.After an emotional confession to Brady, Paul takes his boat out onto the Merrimack River in the middle of a storm. When the coast guard finds the vessel, the lawyer has vanished. Did he die in an accident, or did the stress of his work convince him to end it all? Brady suspects murder, and he will do whatever it takes to understand how his friend died.
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Nervous Water

Nervous Water

William G. Tapply

William G. Tapply

In one of the finest novels yet in Tapply's long-running series, Nervous Water explores the previously hidden past of his much beloved character, Boston attorney Brady Coyne. Contacted by an aged relative with whom he'd long lost touch, Brady agrees to help his Uncle Moze with a sensitive family matter. Having received a diagnosis of terminal cancer, Moze is looking to mend fences with his only daughter. But the daughter seems to have simply disappeared, leaving no clues or hints as to her whereabouts. As Brady tackles the seemingly impossible task of finding his cousin - a case that looks less and less like a simple missing person case - it becomes clear that whatever is going on now is related to a dark, undiscussed episode in his family's past: the brutal, still unsolved murder of another of Brady's uncles.
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Spotted Cats

Spotted Cats

William G. Tapply

William G. Tapply

When an aging big-game hunter is robbed, Brady goes on a leopard huntSix years after the leopard attack that ended his career as a professional hunter, Jeff Newton is broken, crippled, and ready to die. His only pleasure is the occasional visit from Brady Coyne, Jeff's no-nonsense Boston lawyer who's come to Cape Cod to pay his respects to the old man.As always, Brady is entranced by the ex-hunter's houseful of trophies, none more dazzling than the seven Mexican leopard figurines. Solid-gold statues with jewels for eyes, they are priceless, beautiful—and about to be stolen.The thieves club Jeff, cut Brady, and escape with the golden cats, leaving the two men for dead. Jeff ends up in a coma, and Brady sets out to retrieve the trophies. If the old hunter ever wakes up, Brady wants the leopards to be there to greet him.
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Follow the Sharks

Follow the Sharks

William G. Tapply

William G. Tapply

Brady searches Red Sox Nation for a ballplayer's kidnapped sonFor two years, Eddie Donagan was on track to become the greatest Red Sox pitcher of all time. Then one day, without warning, he went from unhittable to ineffective—forcing him to drop out of the Majors before he even hit his prime. Attorney Brady Coyne met Donagan before he turned pro, and stays friends with him even as the faded star drifts into depression, disappearing from his wife and child for days at a time. Finally, the Donagans are thrown into crisis—but it isn't Eddie's disappearance that causes it. It's his son's.One morning, ten-year-old E.J. leaves for his paper route and never returns. Soon, the family receives a ransom demand, and Brady agrees to be the go-between. He finds that the son's problems stem from the father's, and that Eddie Donagan has a dark side no amount of natural talent could overcome.
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Void in Hearts

Void in Hearts

William G. Tapply

William G. Tapply

A private detective is dead, and Brady suspects it's murderLes Katz may well be scum. A private detective, he does not hesitate to take the case when a Farrah Fawcett look-alike hires him to tail her husband. The photos he secures suggest the man is cheating on his wife, but they aren't definitive. Rather than disappoint his client, he contacts her man and offers to sell him the pictures. Katz considers this a charitable act, but to his attorney, Brady Coyne, it looks an awful lot like blackmail.Brady tells Katz to give the money back, fully expecting to be ignored. But when Katz is killed in a hit-and-run, he realizes blackmail wasn't the PI's only mistake: Les Katz was murdered to protect a terrible secret—and a conspiracy that goes far beyond a single cheating husband.
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Past Tense

Past Tense

William G. Tapply

William G. Tapply

Brady Coyne is a middle-aged Boston attorney with a small, select clientele - one that leaves him sufficient time to pursue a personal life. That personal life currently focuses on Evie Banyon, a hospital administrator Brady has been seeing for the past year. While they are on a weekend vacation in Cape Cod, though, a determined stalker from Evie's past turns up to torment her anew. After an unpleasant confrontation with him, Brady and Evie return to their vacation cabin with a dark cloud hanging over them. The next morning, Brady wakes up to the sound of Evie, just outside the cabin, screaming for help. What he finds is the stalker's murdered body lying at Evie's feet, a body she claims to have discovered when she returned from her morning run. Now both Brady and Evie are considered prime suspects in the murder of a man with deep ties to the local community. Released by the police after intense questioning, they return to Boston, whereupon Evie disappears without word or much of a trace. Realizing just how little he knows about Evie's life, Brady Coyne must now delve into her past if he is to uncover the truth about the dead body in his front yard and find the missing Evie in time.
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Every Day Was Special

Every Day Was Special

William G. Tapply

William G. Tapply

"It's been a lifelong, ever-expanding journey, with many big ?sh and faraway waters and dramatic moments . . . and yet I don't think any of those moments or any of those places or ?sh has thrilled me any more than seeing the twitch of my ?y line where it entered the muddy waters of my backyard pond . . ." In this collection of ?y-?shing stories from acclaimed novelist and outdoor writer William G. Tapply, the natural appeal of ?y ?shing comes to life. Each story in Every Day Was Special was previously published in Tapply's back-page column, “Reading the Currents" in American Angler, or in Gray's Sporting Journal, or in Field & Stream. From “Dam It" to “First Light" to “When Trout Get Antsy," these thirty re-readable pieces are unique in their own ways, and yet, all are classic Tapply. These writings serve as testament to the thrill of ?shing, the inimitable energy of casting at daybreak, and the innocence of streamside...
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Sportsman's Legacy

Sportsman's Legacy

William G. Tapply

William G. Tapply

First published in 1993, SPORTSMAN'S LEGACY was the a story of a remarkable relationship between father and son. It could have been the tale of any father and son whose lifelong bond was forged in the outdoors, except that the father was H.G. "Tap" Tapply, who for half a century stood tall among the giants of a generation of beloved sporting writers, including Lee Wulff, Burton Spiller, Ted Trueblood, and others. The son, author William G. Tapply, was revered in his own right as the author of more than 30 mystery novels, including 25 Brady Coyne novels, a dozen outdoor books, and hundreds of articles. This expanded edition includes all of the original book's material, plus more than 60 new photographs; introductions by Bill's son, Mike, and Bill's wife, Vicki; a dialogue between Bill and Philip R. Craig, his co-author on three novels and the author of the J.W. Jackson mysteries; a chapter on tying Tap's Nearenuf fly, and more. This edition expands on the original themes of...
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Gray Ghost

Gray Ghost

William G. Tapply

William G. Tapply

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.From Publishers WeeklyThe pleasures of the outdoors lift the second Stoney Calhoun novel (after 2004's Bitch Creek) from Tapply, best known for his many mysteries about Boston lawyer Brady Coyne (Out Cold, etc.). Stoney, who lost his memory when he was struck by lightning years earlier, knows how to tie a gray ghost—a fly used for salmon—as well as other skills useful to his new life as half-owner of a bait shop in Portland, Maine. Occasionally, hints about his past arrive like muscle twinges—survival skills of the sort learned in law enforcement, reinforced by infrequent visits from "a grayish, nondescript guy from some government agency who'd been sent to keep an eye on him." But Stoney is mostly on his own as he struggles to find out why a burned corpse turns up on a small island, and why the fishing client who was with him when they discovered the body is also killed. Readers will look forward to learning more about Tapply's new character, who with any luck will be around as long as Brady Coyne. (Mar.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistSeven years ago Stony Calhoun emerged from a VA hospital with the memory of his previous life ostensibly obliterated by a direct lightning strike. He has curious attributes of unknown origin, including proficiency in hand-to-hand combat and knowledge of criminal investigation. Settled into a nondescript but contented life as a partner in a fishing-guide business on the coast of Maine, Stony believes his synaptic gap is a good thing. Then he and a client discover the charred remains of an anonymous body on an uninhabited island, and later, the client is murdered on the porch of Stony's isolated cabin. The local sheriff, who used Stony's investigatory skills in Bitch Creek (2004), enlists his reluctant cooperation again. Nothing is as it appears as Stony's role morphs from witness to suspect to investigator to target. Tapply, best known to mystery fans as the author of the delightful Brady Coyne series, presents a complex plot with wonderful characters while teasing readers with small hints about his protagonist's murky past. Here's hoping this series will take hold the way the Coyne novels did decades ago. Wes LukowskyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Death at Charity's Point

Death at Charity's Point

William G. Tapply

William G. Tapply

A Boston lawyer investigates a prep school teacher's suspicious suicideBrady Coyne never meant to become the private lawyer to New England's upper crust, but after more than a decade working for Florence Gresham and her friends, he has developed a reputation for discretion that the rich cannot resist. He is fond of Mrs. Gresham—unflappable, uncouth, and never tardy with a check—and he has seen her through her husband's suicide and her first son's death in Vietnam. But he has never seen her crack until the day her second son, George, leaps into the sea at jagged Charity's Point.The authorities call it a suicide, but Mrs. Gresham cannot believe her son, like his father, would take his own life. As Brady digs into the apparently blemish-free past of this upper-class prep school history teacher, he finds dark secrets. George Gresham may not have been suicidal, but that doesn't mean he wasn't in trouble.
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Client Privilege

Client Privilege

William G. Tapply

William G. Tapply

Defending a client, Brady gets himself implicated in a murder chargeBrady Coyne has known Chester Pops Popowski since law school. An honest, battle-hardened Massachusetts judge, Pops is more soldier than scholar—and has been known to defend what's right with his fists. After years on the bench, Pops has been nominated for a federal judgeship, with a possible Supreme Court appointment in his future. Only one thing stands in his way: blackmail.A TV reporter has evidence of a long-ago affair Pops conducted with a younger woman. Pops sends Brady, his genteel Boston lawyer, to tell the reporter he won't be getting any money. Soon after their meeting, the blackmailer is found dead. Brady refuses to name his client, and finds himself under suspicion of murder. Brady will do whatever it takes to keep Pops out of the papers. If he's lucky, he may even keep himself out of jail.
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Snake Eater

Snake Eater

William G. Tapply

William G. Tapply

The murder of a Green Beret points Brady toward a chilling Vietnam cover-upDaniel McCloud may grow marijuana, but as far as he's concerned, that does not make him a criminal. A Vietnam veteran still suffering from exposure to Agent Orange, he's found no help from the government and no relief outside of homegrown grass. When the local police in his small New England town bust him for possession, a friend reaches out to Brady Coyne, a Boston lawyer who usually works with New England's upper class. Brady is readying Daniel's defense when the case is inexplicably dropped. He's just beginning to wonder why when the veteran is found murdered.McCloud had written a memoir, but the manuscript is nowhere to be found. Someone killed the author to keep it from ever seeing the light of day. As Brady digs into McCloud's time in the army, he finds that this troubled vet made some enemies in the jungle.
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Dead Meat

Dead Meat

William G. Tapply

William G. Tapply

In Maine, Brady investigates a deadly business dealHe may be a millionaire, but Vern Wheeler never forgot that he is a son of Maine—land of big sky, wide lakes, and the fattest salmon on the East Coast. To escape the boardroom, he buys a rundown fishing lodge in the wilds of his home state, and with his brother turns it into the most fashionable retreat in New England. After years of happy fishing, the Wheelers have no interest in selling Raven Lodge. But a local Native American group won't take no for an answer.Claiming that Raven Lodge is located on protected land, the Native Americans threaten to sue for ownership of the property, and Wheeler sends his attorney, fishing enthusiast Brady Coyne, to negotiate. But when Brady arrives at Raven Lake, he finds danger in and out of the water. A fisherman has been scalped, and placid, idyllic Maine is about to erupt into mayhem.
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Dead Winter

Dead Winter

William G. Tapply

William G. Tapply

When a minister's son is accused of murder, Brady doesn't know whom to trustDesmond Winters has had more trouble than a Unitarian minister deserves. Over six years ago, his wife disappeared with their fourteen-year-old daughter, promising to return someday. The daughter came back after six months; the wife never did. The experience scarred Desmond's son, Marc, who acted out by getting involved with cocaine smugglers and marrying an exotic dancer. Through all his troubles, Des was counseled by Brady Coyne, a sensitive lawyer to Boston's elite. But now something has happened that even Brady may not be able to fix: Marc's wife is dead, and the minister's son is the prime suspect.Marc finds Maggie dead in their boat, and calls the police immediately. Brady doesn't believe Marc murdered his wife, but he also knows that in this family, anything is possible. It could be drugs, it could be the missing mother—but a beautiful young girl is dead, and Brady Coyne needs to know why.
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