Walter Duffy was the world's leading bird photographer until an accident crippled him. So Boston lawyer Brady Coyne, an old friend, makes a point of visiting him in his bird-filled garden terrace--until the day Brady finds him lying next to his crutches, fatally bashed in the back of the head. Was it an accident or murder? Where is Walter's college-age son, who was also his much abused household helper? Who keeps calling Brady at odd hours, tipping him off to upcoming arson fires? And what's it all got to do with a packet of letters allegedly written by Meriwether Lewis?
This is Brady Coyne's 19th solo outing, and fans will find their hero just as likable, even-tempered, and incorruptible as ever. They'll also appreciate his growing relationship with companion Eve Banyon (who may be unrealistically gorgeous and devoted, but whose presence gives rise to one of the best sex-in-a-thunderstorm scenes you'll read this year). The suspense in A Fine Line is on the mild side, and the slightly disconnected plot concludes with a too-neat wrap-up. But you'll still enjoy reading Tapply for his fully fleshed people, his evocation of Boston, and his lean prose, which--as always--goes down as smoothly as 16-year-old single malt. --Nicholas H. Allison
Brady Coyne Is Feeling The Heat.
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.
"Tapply consistently delivers well-written, well-constructed and thoroughly entertaining mysteries, and his latest is no exception." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Brady is as easygoing as ever, an amiable guide through a credible cast of suspects." -Kirkus Reviews