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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | Fic (m) Tapply, W. 2007 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Newberg Public Library | MYSTERY TAPPLY | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Silver Falls Library | MYS TAPPLY | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Woodburn Public Library | TAPPLY | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
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.
Author Notes
William G. Tapply was born in Waltham, Massachusetts on July 16, 1940. He graduated from Harvard University in 1963. He wrote more than 40 books during his lifetime including the Brady Coyne mysteries series, the Stoney Calhoun Novel series, and numerous non-fiction books about fly fishing and the outdoors. He was also a contributing editor for Field and Stream, a columnist for American Angler, and part of The Writer magazine editorial board. He was an English professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts and ran The Writers Studio at Chickadee Farm with his wife Vicki Stiefel. He died on July 28, 2009 after a battle with leukemia.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The 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.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Stoney Calhoun hasn't recovered the memories he lost to a lightning strike seven years ago, but he's acting more and more like the cop he suspects he once was. A routine fishing trip to Maine's Casco Bay with historian Paul Vecchio as client and Stonewall Jackson Calhoun as guide ends prematurely when they stop at Quarantine Island and discover the corpse of a man who'd been tortured, castrated and set on fire. At first, Stoney refuses Sheriff Marshall Dickman's request for help. But he changes his mind after Kate Balaban, his bait-and-tackle partner and lover, tells him she's going to break off their affair, which has gone on under the approving eye of her MS-stricken husband, Walter, and Vecchio is shot to death as he sits outside Stoney's house. Questioning possible witnesses as doggedly as any pair of British coppers, the sheriff and his new deputy establish that Errol Watson, the Quarantine victim, was a convicted child molester who may not have been entirely undeserving of his horrifying fate. The State Police are convinced, reasonably enough, that the person who executed Watson was Franklin Dunbar, the father of his traumatized victim, who had concluded his court testimony by announcing that Watson should lose his masculinity and burn in hell. Stoney thinks differently. More ambitious and densely plotted than Stoney's heartfelt debut (Bitch Creek, 2004), but with the same unruffled sense of time and place. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Seven 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 Lukowsky Copyright 2007 Booklist