From Publishers Weekly
The reliable Tapply introduces a new series with a real page-turner set in rural Maine. Stoney Calhoun, "a man without a history," lost his memory in a lightning strike five years earlier. Soon after the accident, Stoney left a rehab hospital in Virginia with a $25,000 check in his pocket from an insurance settlement, drove "Downeast" to live in seclusion along the eponymous creek of the title and began work at Kate Balaban's bait and tackle shop. One morning he foists an unsavory customer planning a wilderness trip onto Lyle McMahan, a local college student and fellow guide, and neither is seen again until Stoney finds Lyle's body floating in an alder swamp with a bullet in his belly. Gnawed by guilt over Lyle's murder, Stoney, with his faithful spaniel, Ralph, searches remote villages, farms and woodlands for his friend's killer, and while doing so, finds clues to his own mysterious past. Tapply's down-to-earth style provides an uncomplicated plot with striking descriptions of Maine's wildest topography, though a far-fetched and excessively violent resolution spoils the rustic mood. Tantalizing questions about Stoney's previous life remain for a future installment. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Ostensibly the victim of a lightning strike, Stoney Calhoun is a man without a past, or at least a past he can remember. Fleeting memory snippets draw him to rural Maine, where he builds a home by the curiously named Bitch Creek. Time passes, and he becomes close to a small circle of friends in the community: fishing guide Lyle, police chief Dickman, and Kate Balaban, owner of a fish and tackle shop who becomes Stoney's sometime employer and sometime lover. When Stoney finds Lyle dead, after referring a guide job to him, he begins to poke around the case, trying to figure out what happened and why. The more Stoney delves into the incident, the more he comes to realize he was a cop of some sort in his unremembered life. He also learns he has the capacity and training for violence and intimidation. As in his long-running series starring quixotic Boston lawyer-sleuth Brady Coyne, genre veteran Tapply mixes crisp plotting and character development with a subtle sense of time and place. This has the makings of a fine new series. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
:"The reliable Tapply introduces a new series with a real page-turner set in rural Maine. Tapply's down-to-earth style provides an uncomplicated plot with striking descriptions of Maine's wildest topography...Tantalizing questions about Stoney's previous life remain for a future installment."--Publishers Weekly

"Featuring Tapply's trademark prose, a sensational plot, and a well-grounded protagonist, this should appeal to his fans as well as readers who enjoy outdoor mysteries."-- Library Journal

"Bitch Creek is simply the best murder mystery I have read in years. The story has a surprise ending and leaves you dangling for more. This is a great yarn."--Wilderness Adventures

This first Stoney Calhoun novel is a winning combination of beautiful setting and pleasingly complex mystery. Temporarily shelving his Brady Coyne series,
Mr. Tapply has produced an excellent substitute for his lawyerly mysteries. Bitch Creek blends the charm of a first novel with the skill and expertise of an admired, long-running series."-Dallas Morning New

"William G. Tapply is one of the mystery scene's most reliable performers, as evidenced by his solid, if not spectacular Brady Coyne series. This stand-alone novel (which could be the introduction to a new series), with its offbeat but appealing hero, shows him at his best."-San Diego Union Tribune

"William G. Tapply writes about fly fishing so seductively...the novel contains a dandy mystery...the ending left me yearning to know more about Stoney's past."

"...it's wonderful to see Tapply get out of the city and into an altogether different kind of time that suits his unhurried storytelling perfectly."-- Kirkus Reviews

As in his long-running series starring quixotic Boston lawyer-sleuth Brady coyne, genre veteran Tapply mixes crisp plotting and character development iwth a subtle sense of time and place. This has the makings of a fine new series."--Booklist

"The perfect mystery novel is not, for me, so tense that I find myself reading it deep into the night, but it is so well done that I look for reading time the next day...Bitch Creek is such a book, written by a master."-- Lincoln Star Journal


Book Description
Finalist for the 2005 Ben Franklin Awards

"Tapply is . . . a worthy successor to Hammett and both MacDonalds (Ross and John)." -Chicago Tribune "

Only a few writers of crime fiction have managed to generate prose this leanly poetic in the service of their hard-boiled stories. Tapply does it all the time." -The Boston Globe

William G. Tapply has created a fresh new world in BITCH CREEK, a steamy, perfectly crafted mystery introducing Stoney Calhoun, an unlikely hero. Stoney is a man without a past. A lightning strike obliterated his memory, and, as so many might like to do, he was given a chance to completely reinvent himself. That's not an easy task when a man doesn't know the slightest thing about himself. But Stoney was driven by some current within and ended up as a fishing guide in Maine. He's reeducating himself, he's in love, and life is good-until his friend and fellow fishing guide is murdered and Stoney suspects that he himself was the target. In a riveting process of revelation, Stoney begins investigating the murder and learns to his surprise that he is, in fact, a trained investigator. The process of discovering the murderer is also a process of self-discovery. Tapply has introduced an unlikely, yet intensely likeable protagonist. He has fashioned an ingenious plot simultaneously unfolding layers of personality and intrigue in his stunning new novel.


From the Back Cover
William G. Tapply has created a fresh new world in Bitch Creek, a steamy, perfectly crafted mystery introducing Stoney Calhoun, an unlikely hero. Stoney is a man without a past. A tragic event has obliterated his memory and he has been given—as so many might like to receive—a chance to reinvent himself. That’s not an easy task when a man doesn’t know anything about himself, except that he is smart and utterly self-reliant.
Stoney is driven by a current within and has settled in Maine and become a fishing guide. He’s reeducating himself, he’s in love, and he is coming to terms with the sometimes ghostly glimpses of his past. Life is sweet, until someone close to him is murdered and Stoney suspects that he himself was the intended target. In a riveting process of investigation and self-discovery, Stoney delves deep into the mysteries of the murder and begins, unwittingly, to uncover vital truths about himself.
In Bitch Creek, Tapply has created a unique and intensely likeable protagonist. He has fashioned an ingenious plot that exquisitely unfolds along with simultaneous layers of personality and intrigue. With stunning surprises and dead-on dialogue, Bitch Creek will be hailed, along with Stoney Calhoun, as Tapply’s latest brilliant creation.


About the Author
WILLIAM G. TAPPLY is the author of more than thirty books, among them twentyone New England-based Brady Coyne mystery novels. Tapply has written several books about fly fishing and the outdoors, including Gone Fishin' (page 93). He's a contributing editor for Field & Stream, a columnist for American Angler, and has written hundreds of articles and essays on a variety of subjects for dozens of other publications. Tapply is a professor of English at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he teaches writing. He lives in Hancock, New Hampshire, with his wife, novelist Vicki Stiefel, and Burt, his Brittany Spaniel.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

William G. Tapply has created a fresh new world in Bitch Creek, a steamy, perfectly crafted mystery introducing Stoney Calhoun, an unlikely hero. Stoney is a man without a past. A lightning strike obliterated his memory, and, as so many might like to do, he was given a chance to completely reinvent himself. That's not an easy task when a man doesn't know the slightest thing about himself. But Stoney was driven by some current within and ended up as a fishing guide in Maine. He's reeducating himself, he's in love, and life is good-until his friend and fellow fishing guide is murdered and Stoney suspects that he himself was the target. In a riveting process of revelation, Stoney begins investigating the murder and learns to his surprise that he is, in fact, a trained investigator. The process of discovering the murderer is also a process of self-discovery. Tapply has introduced an unlikely, yet intensely likeable protagonist. He has fashioned an ingenious plot simultaneously unfolding layers of personality and intrigue in his stunning new novel.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

The reliable Tapply introduces a new series with a real page-turner set in rural Maine. Stoney Calhoun, "a man without a history," lost his memory in a lightning strike five years earlier. Soon after the accident, Stoney left a rehab hospital in Virginia with a $25,000 check in his pocket from an insurance settlement, drove "Downeast" to live in seclusion along the eponymous creek of the title and began work at Kate Balaban's bait and tackle shop. One morning he foists an unsavory customer planning a wilderness trip onto Lyle McMahan, a local college student and fellow guide, and neither is seen again until Stoney finds Lyle's body floating in an alder swamp with a bullet in his belly. Gnawed by guilt over Lyle's murder, Stoney, with his faithful spaniel, Ralph, searches remote villages, farms and woodlands for his friend's killer, and while doing so, finds clues to his own mysterious past. Tapply's down-to-earth style provides an uncomplicated plot with striking descriptions of Maine's wildest topography, though a far-fetched and excessively violent resolution spoils the rustic mood. Tantalizing questions about Stoney's previous life remain for a future installment. Agent, Fred Morris at the Jed Mattes Agency. (Sept. 24) FYI: Tapply's most recent novel in his Brady Coyne series is Shadow of Death (Forecasts, Sept. 8, 2003). Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

In this new series by the author of the Brady Coyne series (Shadow of Death), Stoney Calhoun works in Kate Balaban's bait/tackle shop in small-town Maine but has gaps in his memory after five years in an institution. When mutual friend and fishing guide Lyle goes missing, Stoney searches, finding the man's "secret" trout stream and the man himself suspiciously drowned. Lyle's client, meanwhile, has disappeared. Aided by determination, logic, a psychic vision or two, and Kate's love, Stoney discovers that he was the intended target and that he's really an experienced investigator. Featuring Tapply's trademark prose, a sensational plot, and a well-grounded protagonist, this should appeal to his fans as well as readers who enjoy outdoor mysteries. Tapply lives in Hancock, NH. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews