I had a most enjoyable time reading this novel about Boston attorney cum detective Brady Coyne, the seventeenth outing for this character by author William G. Tapply. And since 2000 there have been seven more Brady Coyne novels, so Tapply is now up to a grand total of 24 which have been based on his appealing literary creation. 

Great credit goes to the author for creating a leading character with such a loyal fan base. If this novel is any indication, that loyalty is well deserved. An author can craft the best crime story in history, but it won't mean anything unless the reader wants to spend time with the gumshoe who is working the case. In this instance, apparently a lot of readers like spending their spare time reading about Brady Coyne.

Besides being a prolific author of detective novels, most of which are based on Brady Coyne, Tapply is also a prolific writer and editor on his other passion, which is fishing. He is a contributing editor for popular outdoors magazines like "Field and Stream" and "The American Angler." 

In this 2000 outing Tapply jumps right into his groove. It is February 2nd, and not much is going on in Brady Coyne's law office. He has a captive audience with Julie, his long time personal assistant, so Brady delivers a delightful riff about an ancient pagan holiday known as Imbolog. It just so happens that Imbolog falls on Groundhog Day, which is noteworthy for the fact that this day is located exactly midway between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox. 

As Brady explains it, the holiday is supposed to be celebrated with lots of mead, many animals ready for sacrifice, and apparently more than a few virgins to be deflowered. Needless to say, Julie takes the meandering of her boss all in good stride since she has been there for a while. Besides, Brady is in a good mood for one of Boston's finest attorneys.

Brady then calls Evie Banyon, his love of five months, and he tries to sell her on the merits of celebrating Imbolog. She responds that she is ready and willing to party, but she doesn't qualify since she isn't a virgin. Evie wonders where anyone find a virgin anymore, not to mention copious amounts of mead. Later that afternoon while Brady is still wrapped in his Imbolog fantasy, Julie proves her mettle by asking him if he is aware of what day falls during the following week. Brady is clueless. Julie kindly reminds him that while Imbolog may be uppermost in his mind, Evie will be far more impressed if he remembers her on Valentine's Day.

Brady is still riding high when Julie notifies him that his long time friend, Jake Gold, is on the telephone and he sounds very distraught. Jake is a professor at one of the local community colleges where years before he had fallen in love with Sharon, one of his much younger students at the time. Now married, their sixteen year old son, Brian, is a sophomore at Reddington High School.

Brian is the reason for Jake's call. In a tragedy beyond comprehension, his son had been riding with Jenny Rolando, his older girlfriend, along River Road below the dam when the car went off the road and into the icy river. Jenny's body has been recovered, but not Brian's, and the police are still breaking into the ice in an effort to find it. Needless to say, Jake and Sharon are stranded in a horrible emotional state by not being able to know whether they should grieve for their lost son or hope beyond hope that somehow he swam to safety and is still alive. 

After comforting the Golds, Brady calls on Ed Sprague, the Reddington Chief of Police. Sprague also happens to have been Brian's soccer coach, for Brian, although small for his age, was quite athletic. While Chief Sprague is obviously very upset over the tragedy, his meeting with Coyne has a strange undercurrent, for he sees Brady less as a Gold family friend and more as an attorney who may be looking to file a lawsuit. 

Brady spends the next few days comforting the Golds and providing what influence he can with the district attorney to keep the authorities fishing through the ice in their search for Brian's body. Eventually they are forced to give up, and it is everyone's fear that his body will be washed out to sea and never seen again. 

As far as Brady was concerned, nothing would have come of this as far as a possible case goes. He had been there as a family friend and nothing more, but on a visit to the crime scene he finds two of Jenny's former classmates throwing roses into the dark, ice strewn river in memory of their lost friend. They view him with suspicion, further amplified by the arrival soon afterwards of Chief Sprague. Before the Chief's arrival, however, Brady has his curiosity piqued by two oblique comments that the girls make. It is obvious to him that they know things which are not public information. 2000, St. Martin's Paperbacks/Minotaur.