William G. Tapply died July 28, 2009 at his home in Hancock, NH, after a battle with leukemia. He was 69.
Beginning with Death at Charity’s Point in 1984, he wrote twenty seven mysteries featuring Boston sports fisherman and lawyer-turned crime solver Brady Coyne. This includes three mysteries he co-wrote with the late Philip R. Craig in which Coyne teams up with Craig’s Martha’s Vineyard detective J. W. Jackson.
“I put Bill up with Robert Parker,’’ said Kate Mattes—owner of Kate’s Mystery Books, the venerable Cambridge store—in Tapply’s Boston Globe obituary. With Brady Coyne, Tapply created “a Spenser-like character, but more polished. He was a lawyer with Brahmin clients who always wanted to keep the police out of it.’’
“He had a very nice writing style and was one of the best plotters of all the mystery authors in the New England region.’’
Tapply had a second series featuring Maine fishing guide Stoney Calhoun, and the third Calhoun title, Dark Tiger, is due in late September 2009.
Like his protagonists, Tapply was an avid fisherman. He wrote several books and nearly a thousand magazine articles about fly fishing and the great outdoors and was a Contributing Editor for Field & Stream and a columnist for American Angler.
Tapply was a professor of English at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he was also the Writer in Residence. In a story entitled Invisible Writing, which you can read on his website, he recalls his remarkable relationship with his father, who was also a writer, and shares how he received the most important writing tip of his life. Aspiring mystery writers should take note. Tapply had an enjoyable writing style and consistently turned out some of the best fair-play mysteries around.
He was a scheduled guest at the upcoming CrimeBake conference in November and I was so looking forward to meeting him. I will be participating in a panel called “L is for Librarians: Mystery-loving librarians reveal the world behind the check-out desk—how they pick mysteries and introduce authors to their patrons.” The guest of honor will be Sue Grafton and all of the programs have been named “something is for something.” CrimeBake is a conference for mystery writers and readers and is held in Dedham, Massachusetts every year. Check the official website for details.
