Customer Reviews

Shadow of Death

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Brady Coyne, a Boston attorney with a wealthy clientele, prefers to avoid the courtroom, handling the wills, divorces, and legal missteps of his clients in the strictest confidence. For his discretion and loyalty, he earns their undying gratitude--and very large checks. When Jimmy D'Ambrosio, a powerful, old-style Boston king-maker, approaches him to investigate the husband of Ellen Stoddard, a woman whose campaign for Senate he is managing, Coyne hires Gordon Cahill, an equally discreet private investigator, to check out Albert Stoddard, a history professor at Tufts University. Within days, however, Cahill is dead in a car crash, and the state police think it may be homicide. When Stoddard himself goes missing, his wife prohibits Coyne from telling the state police and from helping in the investigation of the death of Gordon Cahill, Coyne's friend.

Though there is occasional violence and some tough-as-nails confrontations, the Brady Coyne series offers a unique approach to the detective story. Emphasizing the interrelationships of realistically portrayed characters more than hard-boiled action, author Tapply uses the characters' dialogue with Brady Coyne to give them life. Though some of these characters are easily recognizable local stereotypes, he gives them credibility by mixing these fictional characters with real-life characters. Jimmy D'Ambrosio is fictional, but he is described as having been the campaign manager of the real former mayor, Kevin White, a quintessential Boston politician. The fictional Cahill worked as an undercover state policeman, investigating the Winter Hill Gang, a real gang, one of whose members is on the FBI Ten Most Wanted List. And when Coyne goes to the North End to talk to Vincent Russo, a restaurateur and mob boss, he is talking to a fictional character with roots in real Boston history.

Tapply's folksy narrative style, the honest simplicity of his descriptions, and the incorporation of local color from Boston and the woodlands of southern New Hampshire, give the novel a breadth and "charm" missing from more action-oriented series. Relatively simple in its presentation and style, the mystery is also simple, and while the reader will probably be surprised by one plot twist at the end, the chances are that s/he will not be very surprised by the ultimate solution to the mystery. The reading of the novel is so pleasurable, however, and the dialogue and interaction of the characters are so much fun to observe that I will gladly trade "shock and awe" for good, old-fashioned story-telling like this, anyday. Mary Whipple

Attorney Brady Coyne is hired by the campaign manager of a senatorial candidate to conduct a discreet investigation of the candidate's husband. Brady hires his friend, former undercover cop turned PI, to tail the husband. When the PI is killed in a staged car crash, the campaign manager who evoked attorney/client privilege prevents Brady from helping the police. Since he cannot help the police and feels a responsibility for his friend, he decides to investigate himself. He ends up opening a Pandora's box of secrets going back thirty years.

Brady Coyne is a nice-guy lawyer. Recent novels featuring him have been a bit bland because frankly nice guys in crime novels are boring. This recent novel is the best one in years. The characters were well defined and the plot of suspenseful. Brady is still laid back and too nice, but this time he suffers some angst which makes him more human. It was a pleasant page turning, quickly read book.

Political kingmaker Jimmy D'Ambrosio knows that spousal trouble when one runs for elected office means trouble for the candidate. Jimmy D worries about Albert, husband of the US Senater from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts candidate Ellen Stoddard. Jimmy D asks old friend Boston based attorney, Brady Coyne to hire the most discreet private investigator to determine why Albert is acting strange.

Brady employs private eye Gordon Cahill, who learns what is bothering Albert, but dies in a car accident that looks more like deliberate murder before he can meet with Brady. Knowing that Gordon concentrated on Albert's Southwick, New Hampshire cabin, Brady travels there, but stirs the pot enough that someone else is also killed. Cops in two states are interested in Brady, his unidentified client, and solving two homicides.

SHADOW OF DEATH is a strong Coyne entry, perhaps the best in the last decade. The story line moves at a rapid pace as Brady is caught between client confidentiality and the homicides. The support characters propel the tale forward while Brady seems refreshed as if he rolled back the clock twenty years. Fans of the hero or the New England who-done-it scene will enjoy William G. Tapply's latest story runs on all cylinders.

Harriet Klausner

Tapply and Coyne are a good read, as usual.

Tapply is one of the best mystery writers out there, in my opinion, and definitely under appreciated. It's rare to even find his books on the shelf at BN or Borders stores, so Amazon is a godsend for fans.

I think every Robert B. Parket fan would enjoy reading Tapply, if only for the distinct differences between Coyne and Spenser, and the opposing "life philosophies" of the characters!

It is unpalatable to criticize a book in view of Mr Tapply's sad & untimely death last year. And this book has positive features: it is very readable, there is suspense upto a point, & realistic interactions between characters. But overall it doesn't work because the plot essentially is pointlss. (And some people may feel I'm giving away too much here, so consider stopping if you plan to read the book!) To begin with, the crime for which the people are being blackmailed is not really a crime, a tragedy yes, but a bunch of frightened boys acting somewhat irresponsibly is hardly something they would be so scared that as adults 30 years later they can't discuss with their family & go to the police. And truly the culpability of 3 of them was essentially nonexistent. As boys they might have felt frightened; as adults (& some of them successful) they must have realized they aren't criminally responsible for what happened & acting no diferent that any other regular kid. And there is no reason for them to blabber which seems to have been the pivotal aspect of the story. Secondly, the perpetrators aren't too bright but seems to have worked out really smart murders. Also, in this day of the internet, that kind of information wouldn't have remained a secret for very long especially when one concerned is a potential senator's spouse, sooner or later someone would contact the media about it. Mr Tapply doesn't seem to recognize how much 'long-forgotten' information is dredged up these days! And lastly-& this is very important-in small towns newsworthy things are remembered by many for a long time, the enquiries the protagonist makes about the characters would have immediately gotten the story out from people...the twist at the end just doesn't work. Well-written but plot falls apart.

The hero does a lot of driving back and forth in the course of the book and just how interesting can you make that? The PI's client, the wife with the missing hubby, seems a lot less upset about the whole thing than our hero. he trys to dive deep into the mystery without much support from her. The hero also needlessly withholds information from the police that would assist in their investigations. None of his cooperation would cross the line on client confidentially. It wasn't an awful book but it dragged and there wasn't much of a payback at the end for all that mundane story telling.

The mystery of it keeps you in doubt until the very last page, but the best thing about this book is that it gives you an insider's view of what really goes on in a politician's mind.

I'd not read Tapply prior to this but didn't feel lost in the series. I very much enjoyed the characters, the fact that Coyne is ethical, and the fact that we didn't spend any time in the courtroom. The sense of place and dialogue were excellent. I knew who the killers were very early into the story but not the motive behind it all, and there was a good twist at the end. While I didn't find it and outstanding read, I certainly enjoyed it enough to give others in the series a try.

As a long-time fan of William G. Tapply's Brady Coyne mysteries, I really enjoyed Shadow of Death . . . right up until the mystery began to completely unravel. Then, I was appalled to find out that Mr. Tapply made all kinds of improbable assumptions in setting up the events. These assumptions were entirely unnecessary to telling this story, so I have to believe that Mr. Tapply just didn't put the effort into his mystery that he should have.

Shadow of Death makes for interesting reading because it has several strong lines of story development: an unusual marriage between a female political aspirant who has been a prosecutor and a quiet male history professor; a tough ethical issue as Brady Coyne has to honor client confidentiality while the cops desperately need some help; the evolving relationship between Evie Banyon and Brady as they move in together and take up with Henry, their new dog; and a remote scandal in a small New Hampshire town that no one seems to want to discuss. The background for these story lines is that Brady has been hired by Ellen Stoddard's senatorial campaign manager, Jimmy D'Ambrosio (known as Jimmy D), to find out what's happened to the candidate's husband ("He's acting . . . weird."). Since Ellen is the daughter of a client, and a friend, Brady checks with her before taking on the case. His job: Hire a PI to find out what's going on . . . and keep his mouth shut (attorney-client privilege being helpful in such matters). Brady duly hires Gordon Cahill, a great PI, to do the tailing . . . and everything seems to work fine until Cahill skips the meeting to make his report. Instead, Detective Horowitz is tossing Cahill's office. Cahill has turned up dead . . . and evidence soon points toward foul play. Horowitz wants answers, and Brady cannot get permission from Jimmy D to provide any. Feeling guilty and responsible, Brady follows Cahill's trail. In the meantime, Professor Stoddard has disappeared.

Brady's search takes him to New Hampshire with substantial complications along the way for all of the characters. The action is leavened by several interesting characters who are specific to this book, lots of bad puns and speculation about trout streams.

If you don't mind the clunky mystery and weird, ineffective methods of investigating it (for example, why didn't Brady just look up the details about the town's past in a newspaper?), you will probably think this is a four or five star book.

As I finished the book, I began to realize why it is so hard to write great books. You can get all but one part right . . . and still far below the mark. Keep getting feedback on what you have written and then keep rewriting has to be the lesson from this unfortunately flawed book.