Out Cold: A Brady Coyne Novel (Brady Coyne Mysteries) [Hardcover]

William G. Tapply (Author)

Book Description

Series: Brady Coyne Mysteries | Publication Date: September 19, 2006

Brady Coyne is a Boston attorney, whose routine legal work and sedate lifestyle usually keep him far away from trouble. Unfortunately, one cold January morning, trouble comes to him. When Brady lets his dog out into the backyard of his Back Bay brownstone, he finds a girl buried under the snow in Brady's back yard. A teenager, maybe fifteen or sixteen, who had apparently crawled into the backyard, bleeding, in the middle of the night, only to die from hypothermia and blood loss. The singular clue to her identity is a small piece of paper with the brownstone's address scribbled on it.
Now Brady is determined to find out who the girl was, why she had his address, and what happened to her. But the mysterious girl's death is only the beginning - someone out there knows Brady is trying to find out what happened that night and is willing to do anything, or kill anyone, to keep the truth from coming out.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of Tapply's entertaining 22nd Brady Coyne novel (after 2005's Nervous Water), the Boston lawyer's dog uncovers a pregnant teenager dying in his snow-covered backyard. After the coroner finds Brady's Beacon Hill address in the girl's pocket, Brady pursues the girl's identity among street kids, a couple of whom shortly turn up murdered. The investigation leaps forward when Brady's girlfriend, Evie Banyon, recognizes the girl from the morgue photos, and another clue leads to a defunct New Hampshire genetics lab. Brady heads north to question the geneticist who headed the lab and becomes convinced that the man has something to hide. In the page-turning denouement, Brady outfits himself commando-style to survey the scientist's secluded farmhouse and learn the truth. Longtime series fans will be most rewarded. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

It's true that Boston attorney Brady Coyne likes to take life easy. But it's also true that when the occasional murder case drops in his lap, Brady is all too ready to take a few chances. This time murder lands literally in his backyard, in the form of the victim, a teenage girl whom Brady finds dead in the snow with his address in her pocket. But who is she? Finding the answer to that question proves easier than it seems at first, but tracking back the girl's life in an attempt to determine who killed her is a horse of another color. The trail leads Brady to New Hampshire and the home of a renegade doctor whose research may not be as innocent as it appears. Even with Brady out in the cold, on a solo stakeout, taking chances in triplicate, he's always a regular guy--somebody whose butt gets cold if he sits in the snow. So who can blame him for recklessly trying to put a little juice in his life? We would, too, if we had the nerve. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (September 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312337469
• ISBN-13: 978-0312337469
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #898,569 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I adore Tapply and Coyne, September 16, 2006

By 

Tina Avon - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out Cold: A Brady Coyne Novel (Brady Coyne Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I rated this book as a 4 star because I am such a huge fan of Tapply and his character Brady Coyne.

Had this been the very first Brady Coyne I had read, I would have rated a 3 stars. Why? Unfortunately, this one is very, very slow. While Tapply is not known for writing à la Patterson with car chases and extremely detailed accounts of the act of murder, he is ALWAYS capable of moving a storyline along at a good (great) pace. This book is the exception.

While I am eternally grateful that Tapply has made very little detailed references to fishing in this book, the storyline of Coyne accidentally finding the body of a murdered girl is his back yard just does not have the bite that his other storylines usually have.

Additionally, his intereaction with the people in his life such as Evie and Julie felt forced and almost like all the characters were not connecting.

I did not feel my usual investment in the storyline. While Coyne was his usual fun, interesting character, this book just felt slightly off for me. I did manage to finish it and I will absolutely continue reading this series - I just was not devouring this book as I usually would with the other ones.

However, because Tapply is such a strong author, I could not, in good conscience, rate him lower than a 4 star.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of his best!, October 27, 2007

By 

Ayla's Gram (Rural NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out Cold: A Brady Coyne Novel (Brady Coyne Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I too have read and usually enjoyed all of Tapply's books. I am very fond of his character Brady Coyne, but most of all I appreciate Tapply's use of the language. He tells a good story in such a way that I can easily SEE the action in my mind. This book held my attention as it moved right along; I couldn't put it down. I'm not sure I was reading the same book some of the other reviewers read. And BTW, there was nothing, neither pro nor con, concerning the legalization of abortion.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A wild and not quite believable ending spoils an otherwise very enjoyable read, March 11, 2009

By 

Neal C. Reynolds (Indianapolis, Indiana) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Out Cold: A Brady Coyne Novel (Brady Coyne Novels) (Hardcover)

'm becoming very much of a Brady Coyne fan, but this installment in the series is disappointing.Before I go further, I do want to correct one reviewer's claim that this makes any statements on the abortion issue. It doesn't.Henry, Brady Coyne's dog, discovers a teenage girl's body in the snow in the lawyer's back yard. The girl's death was caused by a miscarriage, not by an illegal abortionist, so whatever your view on that issue, don't expect Tapply to make any comments, pro or con, on that issue.Anyway, Coyne feels increasingly responsible for the girl's death because his address is ound in the girl's possession and he feels if he had only known of her presence in his yard earlier, he might have saved her life. So he finds himself investigating the circumstances of her death and this leads to more deaths.The suspense is great during the first half, but be prepared for an ending which requires considerable suspenson of disbelief with the introduction of a character who would have been admirably portrayed by Boris Karloff id this had been a 1940's movie.I recommend this to staunch fans of the series, but if you're not dedicated to reading EVERY Brady Coyne novel, this is one I think you can safely skip.