Stoney Calhoun has been content to live his life since waking up in a VA hospital seven years earlier. He has amnesia about his life until then, and though occasionally surprised by the appearance of a new skill or flash of knowledge, he's happy with who he is now and not interested in uncovering who he used to be.
The Man in the Suit has been content to visit from time to time and check on the state of Stoney's memory, but things have changed - Stoney is coerced on a number of fronts to accept an offer he really can't refuse, working as a guide at an exclusive fishing lodge in the far corner of Maine. He can't tell anyone why or where he's going, which doesn't help his relationship with Kate, and he can't come home until he discovers who killed a government agent and the sixteen-year-old local girl found with him.
Dark Tiger strikes a beautiful balance between plot and character development - amnesia may mean Stoney's lost a lot, but there's a clear sense of who he is at his core, and we're given the impression that hasn't changed. Clearly highly trained, he discovers
a memory in his body and his brain of how the stick felt vibrating in his hands, and how his feet could feel the air pressuring the fuselage when they worked the rudder pedals, and he knew he'd flown a plane such as this one low and fast over woods and lakes. This memory, like all of his memories from the time before he was zapped by lightening, was imprecise and refused to be pinned down, but Calhoun could feel it in his fingers and toes.
I was less interested in the finer details of who did it and why than in Stoney himself - his character, the way he works and how he processes information is calm, methodical and intelligent. Tapply's writing is seamless and invisible - though occasionally struck by a particular line or thought, I was otherwise unaware of the reading process. I read Dark Tiger with a tinge of sadness - it's clear from the tone of the novel and the loose ends that this was intended to be a longer series but was cut short with Tapply's death. I've enjoyed Stoney so much I'm almost afraid to try any of Tapply's other novels, but perhaps the enforced rest of the 2011 Library Ban will help. - Alex
The Stoney Calhoun trilogy:
Bitch Creek
Grey Ghost
Dark Tiger
Now part-owner of Kate's Bait and Tackle, lightning-induced amnesiac Stoney Calhoun is settling in to his new life in Maine. Though his past is opaque, Stoney's focus is on the present - he has a job he enjoys, a home in the woods, a faithful dog (named for Ralph Waldo Emerson), a relationship that's complicated but sound, and he's steadily making his way through the two thousand page American Literature anthology he picked up at a second-hand book shop. from time to time he comes across writing he knows he's read before, but his previous life is still a blank.
When Stoney takes out writer and college professor Paul Vecchio early one morning, he's not optimistic - the man's most reluctant to leave behind his electronic gadgets, and then he won't even pee over the side of the boat but insists on pulling the boat in to one of the calendar islands dotted about the bay, so named because there are close to 365 of them.
Quarantine Island has a history - in 1918 immigrants were kept there in case they brought the deadly Spanish flu with them. In February of that year a fire broke out - between the flames and the frigid winter air, every inhabitants on the island, men, women, children and the nuns ministering to them, died. Worse, there's a suspicion the fire was deliberately lit by citizens fearful of contagion and prejudiced against immigrants. The charred, mutilated body Vecchio discovers is far more recently dead.This is the second Stoney Calhoun novel, and the elements I so enjoyed in Bitch Creek continue - the writing is lucid and vivid, detailed yet sparse, and the characters are complex. Stoney is a contradiction of a man, both simple, straightforward and direct, yet complex, well trained and layered. He has very clear ideas about where the lines he won't cross are, and even if they don't always make sense to others, he sticks to them. This creates tension in his relationship with Dickman, the local sheriff, and cause him to step back from Kate when she's conflicted about their relationship; although they seem somewhat arbitrary and serve to make him a little less likable, these kinds of traits also add to the depth of his character.
The Man in the Suit, an anonymous government representative tasked with keeping tabs on the potential for Stoney's memory returning, also makes an appearance, in no small part setting the stage for the final in this too-short series.
I can't read the novels when hungry, because Tapply's descriptions of the steaks he cooks when expecting Kate to come by are so vivid. I've also learned a number of things I'd otherwise have been oblivious to; in this instance the most vivid one is the definition of keelhauling, something I'd previously given little thought to but heard of and assumed was considerably more benign than it is. I so enjoyed Gray Ghost that I've not only borrowed its sequel but begun reading it before writing this review (and the sadly many other reviews patiently waiting in line). - Alex
The Stoney Calhoun trilogy:
Bitch Creek
Grey Ghost
Dark Tiger
All Stoney Calhoun knows about himself for certain is his name, date of birth, and the fact that he used to work for a branch of the government. Everything else was wiped away when he was struck by lightning, an event that took months of rehab to recover from. As Stoney recreates his life, he learns more about his old self by the things he can do and the instincts he retains.He's content with his life in a quiet town in Maine - he works for Kate Balaban, selling rods, tying flies and taking customers out to the many semi-secret fishing spots dotted around Casco Bay. It's Stoney's turn to act as guide, but he doesn't warm to Fred Green, a conventioneer from Florida interested in hooking a brook trout. So he calls his fellow guide, and closest friend, to do it instead.When Lyle McMahon doesn't show for a meeting, Stoney's not alarmed - Lyle's reliable but he's young. Kate's not so sanguine, and after calling his anxious girlfriend, Stoney starts to feel uneasy, too. When Lyle's truck turns up, parked in the yard of the local high school, keys in the ignition, Stoney starts to worry; finding Lyle's body partly submerged in his secret fishing hole fills Stoney with sadness, guilt, and a desire for justice.Bitch Creek is the first in a trilogy cut short by the untimely death of Tapply, an avid fisherman and writer apparently better known for his Brady Coyne mystery series. the writing, like the protagonist, is laconic, spare and deceptively effortless. Tapply manages to convey a lot with few words, and the plot I've outlined is only one of several that wind through the novel.There are flashes of back story about how Stoney ended up in Casco Bay, the evolution of his relationship with his married boss, a mysterious government man who regular checks in on Stoney's recalcitrant memory, and a lot more about the art of fishing and fly tying than I ever thought I'd have any interest in. So much so, in fact, that I've already got the second in the series (Gray Ghost) out on loan, and have my eye on the third. - Alex
The Stoney Calhoun trilogy:
Bitch Creek
Grey Ghost
Dark TigerTo read the first chapter of Bitch Creek click here.
