Hell Bent by William G. Tapply

I received a copy of Hell Bent by William G. Tapply from the Early Reviewers program at LibraryThing. As I am studying the book before I read it, I realize that it's the latest in a LONG series of books with lawyer Brady Coyne as the protagonist. And when I say LONG, I mean this is the 24th!!!!

Even with my issue with reading a series in order, I realized that I would not be able to read all 23 prior books before reading Hell Bent. So, I chucked caution to the wind and jumped right into book 24.

In this 'episode', lawyer Brady Coyne meets up (again, I am assuming) with former girlfriend Alex Sinclair. Alex asks Brady to represent her brother, Gus, in his divorce. Gus is a photojournalist who went to Iraq freelance. He returned home a different man both physically - missing a hand - and mentally - depressed, suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The changes made for a dangerous situation at home and his wife is asking for a divorce.

Before Brady can get very far in working through the divorce, Gus is found dead in his apartment of an apparent suicide. But Brady and Alex are not convinced it was a suicide so Brady does some investigating on his own to figure out what really happened.

I definitely enjoyed this book and am looking forward to 'starting' the series back at the beginning. It will be interesting to read the earlier books knowing a little bit about the future. The main characters were not fully developed in this book but I wouldn't expect them to be in an individual book in a long running series such as this.

If you are a fan of mystery series, this is one that you will want to get started on. If you already know William Tapply and Brady Coyne, you will definitely enjoy this book.

Rating: 4/5 stars