Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"Tapply is the best there is today...a worthy successor to Hammet and both MacDonalds (Ross and John)."
-Chicago Tribune"Tapply's elegant prose is a pleasure, and fans will cheer." -Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
An Unexpected VisitorWhen Boston lawyer Brady Coyne takes his girlfriend Evie up to Cape Cod for a romantic weekend getaway, the last thing he expects to find in the driveway of their secluded cottage is the body of her murdered ex.
A Bizarre Disappearance
But when police declare her a chief suspect in the murder, Evie disappears without a trace, leaving Brady to face skeptical small-town cops. Watched at every turn, he goes looking for his girl, knowing he has to find the real killer if he ever hopes to clear Evie's name and save his own reputation.
A Dark Secret
More corpses surface as Brady races against the clock to find the truth, taking him closer and closer to a deadly secret from the past-and a twisted killer...
"If you haven't made a pilgrimage [to read Tapply] lately, Past Tense is a fine place to plunge back in. There's a wonderfully sexy woman...named Evie with a past that would make Ross Macdonald drool; a Cape Cod setting so richly evoked you can taste the shepherd's pie in the local diner; and above all, Tapply's always-wise, never-cynical hero." -Chicago Tribune
Synopsis
When Boston lawyer Brady Coyne takes his girlfriend Evie up to Cape Cod for a romantic weekend getaway, the last thing he expects to find in the driveway of their secluded cottage is the body of her murdered ex.
But when police declare her a chief suspect in the murder, Evie disappears without a trace, leaving Brady to face skeptical small-town cops. Watched at every turn, he goes looking for his girl, knowing he has to find the real killer if he ever hopes to clear Evie's name and save his own reputation.
More corpses surface as Brady races against the clock to find the truth, taking him closer and closer to a deadly secret from the past-and a twisted killer...
About the Author
William G. Tapply is a contributing editor to
Field & Stream and the author of numerous books on fishing and wildlife as well as nineteen books of crime fiction, most recently
Scar Tissue. He lives just outside Boston, Massachusetts.