William G. Tapply

Tapply's final Coyne mystery, Outwitting Trolls, was published in 2010, a year after his death.

Tapply died on July 28, 2009, from leukemia at his farm in Hancock, New Hampshire.

Before becoming a full-time writer, Tapply was a school teacher and administrator at his alma mater, Lexington High School. He also taught at Emerson College and was an English professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. According to the owner of Kate's Mystery Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Tapply "helped young writers a lot and was a wonderful teacher." Tapply wrote The Elements of Mystery Fiction (2004), a book that describes the process of writing and publishing mysteries.

Tapply was married to editor and mystery writer Vicki Stiefel and had five children. Tapply met Stiefel at a writer's group in 1992. Stiefel said that Tapply "helped a lot with my writing. He's a terrific teacher."

Tapply's first Coyne mystery, Death at Charity's Point, was published in 1984. Tapply described Coyne as "a lawyer with Brahmin clients who always wanted to keep the police out of it." Coyne, like his creator, was an avid trout fisherman. Writing about Tight Lines (1992), one of the Coyne mysteries, a reviewer said, "Brady is as appealing a character as ever". Reviewing Scar Tissue (2003), the 17th Coyne mystery, a critic stated: "Like a well-worn, comfortable pair of shoes or a favorite old college sweat shirt, William G. Tapply and Brady Coyne just don't disappoint."

Death at Charity's Point (1984), Tapply's first mystery novel, won the Scribner Crime Novel Award.

Tapply graduated from Lexington High School. He earned a bachelor's in American studies from Amherst College in 1962 and received a master's in teaching from Harvard.

William G. Tapply (July 16, 1940 – July 28, 2009) was an American writer who published over 40 works. He is best known for his legal mystery series featuring lawyer and detective Brady Coyne, and he also wrote about one of his favorite pastimes, fishing.