61. Gray Ghost - William G. Tapply

Stoney Calhoun #2
For: Adult
St. Martins Minotaur, March 2007
257 pgs.
Rating: 4

Set in the Maine woods and on Casco Bay (Portland), my second encounter with Stoney Calhoun was just as good as my first. With all memory wiped out by a lightning strike seven years before, Stoney has no desire to find out about his past. He's built a house in the woods on Bitch Creek, has his faithful dog, Ralph, and fishes whenever he wants. He's a fishing guide now. He has the knowledge he acquired previously, but nothing else. He's visited late at night by a nameless man who keeps asking him what he's remembered (nothing), but has no knowledge of his past life.

This mystery is about two murders. The first is a body burned beyond recognition on an abandoned island in Casco Bay. The second is a fishing client, whom he finds shot to death on his front porch when he arrives home one afternoon. His friend, Sheriff Dickman, insists that Stoney become his deputy because he appreciates Stoney's sixth sense, intuition, insight, into questionable matters. A fast moving story.

I went online to see if Tapply's written a third mystery with Stoney Calhoun as protagonist. To my great dismay, I discovered that Tapply died of leukemia on July 27th. He was 69. He's written a slew of Brady Coyne mysteries, and is quite well known as a fisherman and mystery writer in the New England area. I DID discover that his third Stoney Calhoun, Dark Tiger, will be published at the end of this month.