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Item Barcode | Collection | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33607001989659 | Adult Fiction | TAPPLY | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
Finalist for the 2005 Ben Franklin Awards. "Tapply is . . . a worthy successor to Hammett and both MacDonalds (Ross and John)." -Chicago Tribune. " Only a few writers of crime fiction have managed to generate prose this leanly poetic in the service of their hard-boiled stories. Tapply does it all the time." -The Boston Globe. 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 lightning strike obliterated his memory, and, as so many might like to do, he was given a chance to completely reinvent himself. That's not an easy task when a man doesn't know the slightest thing about himself. But Stoney was driven by some current within and ended up as a fishing guide in Maine. He's reeducating himself, he's in love, and life is good-until his friend and fellow fishing guide is murdered and Stoney suspects that he himself was the target. In a riveting process of revelation, Stoney begins investigating the murder and learns to his surprise that he is, in fact, a trained investigator. The process of discovering the murderer is also a process of self-discovery. Tapply has introduced an unlikely, yet intensely likeable protagonist. He has fashioned an ingenious plot simultaneously unfolding layers of personality and intrigue in his stunning new novel.
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 (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The reliable Tapply introduces a new series with a real page-turner set in rural Maine. Stoney Calhoun, "a man without a history," lost his memory in a lightning strike five years earlier. Soon after the accident, Stoney left a rehab hospital in Virginia with a $25,000 check in his pocket from an insurance settlement, drove "Downeast" to live in seclusion along the eponymous creek of the title and began work at Kate Balaban's bait and tackle shop. One morning he foists an unsavory customer planning a wilderness trip onto Lyle McMahan, a local college student and fellow guide, and neither is seen again until Stoney finds Lyle's body floating in an alder swamp with a bullet in his belly. Gnawed by guilt over Lyle's murder, Stoney, with his faithful spaniel, Ralph, searches remote villages, farms and woodlands for his friend's killer, and while doing so, finds clues to his own mysterious past. Tapply's down-to-earth style provides an uncomplicated plot with striking descriptions of Maine's wildest topography, though a far-fetched and excessively violent resolution spoils the rustic mood. Tantalizing questions about Stoney's previous life remain for a future installment. Agent, Fred Morris at the Jed Mattes Agency. (Sept. 24) FYI: Tapply's most recent novel in his Brady Coyne series is Shadow of Death (Forecasts, Sept. 8, 2003). (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Library Journal Review
In this new series by the author of the Brady Coyne series (Shadow of Death), Stoney Calhoun works in Kate Balaban's bait/tackle shop in small-town Maine but has gaps in his memory after five years in an institution. When mutual friend and fishing guide Lyle goes missing, Stoney searches, finding the man's "secret" trout stream and the man himself suspiciously drowned. Lyle's client, meanwhile, has disappeared. Aided by determination, logic, a psychic vision or two, and Kate's love, Stoney discovers that he was the intended target and that he's really an experienced investigator. Featuring Tapply's trademark prose, a sensational plot, and a well-grounded protagonist, this should appeal to his fans as well as readers who enjoy outdoor mysteries. Tapply lives in Hancock, NH. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.