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.

[4] He earned a bachelor's in American studies from Amherst College in 1962 and received a master's in teaching from Harvard.

[4] Tapply also published essays and books about fishing, and, like his father, wrote for Field & Stream.

[4] He also taught at Emerson College and was an English professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.

[4] According to the owner of Kate's Mystery Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Tapply "helped young writers a lot and was a wonderful teacher.

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