From Publishers Weekly
The eighth superior mystery featuring Boston lawyer-sleuth Brady Coyne ( The Dutch Blue Error et al.) begins as a pleasant medium-boiled yarn but ends as a shocking tale of secret horror. Coyne is called in the middle of the night by his long-time client Desmond Winter, a retired Unitarian minister in Newburyport. Maggie, ex-stripper and wife of Des's semi-ne'er-do-well son Marc, has been found on Des's fishing boat, beaten to death. Although Marc isn't arrested, he's clearly the prime suspect, especially since he and Maggie had an "open" marriage. Next a lawyer from North Carolina is murdered in a local motel; then another murder strikes Marc closer to home. Behind everything lies the 17-year-old disappearance of Des's wife Connie and its devastating effect on Marc and his sister Kat. A further complication is the affair that seems to be brewing between Coyne and Kat. The plot takes some gothic turns--bastardy, incest, an earlier violent death--but Tapply never neglects his nicely defined characterizations or loses his cool control over narrative tension in this very satisfying caper. Mystery GMystery Guild main selection; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Brady Coyne, self-assured lawyer to the rich, endeavors to help the wayward son of client/friend Desmond Winter, retired Unitarian minister. Marc Winter discovers his murdered wife's battered, nude body aboard the family boat and phones the police, who, of course, suspect him. A grabber from the start, the plot wends its way through a maze of family secrets, two subsequent murders, and a budding love affair. Author Tapply ( The Dutch Blue Error, The Marine Corpse, etc.) supplies his usual fluid prose, attractive characters, and plausible twists. A necessary purchase.-- REK
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
