Tight Lines

Brady Coyne's dying client wants him to find her estranged daughter--an only child who ran off with an older man--but Coyne's investigation runs into a dead end

Lawyer of choice to wealthy Bostonians, Brady Coyne avoids the term attorney for the pretensions it suggests. But at the behest of his old friend Susan Ames, descendant of an eminent family who have occupied the same Concord house since 1748, he enters into rarified social circles to trace the whereabouts of Susan's only child, Mary Ellen, who all but vanished while a college student 11 years earlier. With little time left for terminally ill Susan why? is she dying? well you might ask/sss and not much information, Brady patiently pursues lines of inquiry. Three murders occur during his investigation, during which he also pays attention to his divorced wife (whom he still calls "hon") and begins a relationship with a captivating stranger. In his measured style, Brady moves through Boston's fascinating environs and the colorful autumn countryside of New England as new avenues constantly open up in this well-crafted plot. Having come to know Tapply's vividly depicted characters--where they live, what they wear, what they eat and drink, how they think and feel--readers will delight in the tale's surprising, convincing resolution.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The elegiac tone that Tapply's affected for Brady Coyne's last few outings (Client Privilege, etc.) is perfectly suited to this autumnal tale of elderly, blue-blooded Susan Ames's attempt to find her daughter Mary Ellen so that they can make peace before Susan dies. It's clear from the beginning that wayward, father-loving Mary Ellen will predecease her hated mother, and two more deaths are pretty broadly portended too; the only question is which of Mary Ellen's Oedipal affairs (with her psychiatrist? the professor from ten years back who couldn't let go? the superannuated hippie bookstore-owner? her current boyfriend, a suspended Boston cop? her female building super?) led to her death. And this time the Freudian clues are so pointed that most readers will work out the answer before sad, subdued Brady does. The usual Tapply strengths: a deceptively tranquil style, heavy doses of the Brady charm, and just enough mystery to keep you turning the pages until the revelation you've feared all along. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.