Fly Fishing Book Excerpt: William Tapply's New Gray Ghost

January 15, 2007 By: Marshall Cutchin

Probably best known for his many mysteries about Boston lawyer Brady Coyne, William Tapply is also one of the most prolific fly fishing authors alive. Although he specializes in mystery fiction (he wrote the well-regarded handbook The Elements of Mystery Fiction: Writing a Modern Whodunit), Tapply has also written close to a thousand articles for Field & Stream, American Angler, and a host of other periodicals. So we were very happy to hear that the protagonist of his new series, Stoney Calhoun, is a Maine fly-fishing guide — at least when he is not beset with glimpses of an enigmatic personal past that was zapped from his brain by a bolt of lightning.
This week we’re happy to share the first chapter of Tapply’s new book, Gray Ghost, which will arrive on store shelves on March 6. Any fly fisher who doesn’t already read mysteries will want to give this one a spin. We read an advance copy of the book recently and couldn’t put it down.