Created by Colleen Collins
Things to do in Denver when you’re a Deadhead…
Slacker former defense attorney and current Colorado eye RICK LEVINE‘s plans to get clean, stop inhaling and grow up seemed like a good idea at the time. But after five years of living the straight and narrow, his attempts to get himself re-licensed as an attorney go seriously astray — he’s charged with murder. And the half-million dollar bailbond doesn’t help much either.
Fortunately, Rick’s long-suffering girlfriend Laura Fitzhugh has a heart of gold, a gift for gab and the Dinosaur Foot Bed and Breakfast and Hot Springs to put up for his bond. When he’s sprung, the two make like a 21st century Nick and Nora, bouncing all over Denver in a frantic race to find the real culprit before the bond runs out. That’s the scenario in Rick and Laura’s debut, The Zen Man (2011), an impressive kick-off that may occassionally play a little cute (“Rick and Laura” –get it?), but delivers enough wit and occasional grit to make this potential series one to watch.
Colleen Collins is a Colorado-based author, writing instructor and working private eye whose work includes several romance novels, as well as a couple of pretty useful guides to writing detective fiction: How To Write a Dick, co-authored with her husband and P.I. partner Shaun Kaufman, and How Do Private Eyes Do That?When not sleuthing, Colleen’s working on a time-traveling PI series, co-teaching Writing PIs in Novels with Shaun, and envisioning how Nick and Nora would behave in the 21st century.
The Zen Man, Collins’ first full-length P.I. novel, was based on “The Ungrateful Dead,” a short story she wrote back in 2008, revolving around Rick and Laura having a romantic weekend at a coroner’s conference, the very sort of thing Colleen and Shaun would do.  the story was eventually published in 2014.
SHORT STORIES
- “The Ungrateful Dead” (2014)Â |Â Kindle it!
NOVELS
- The Zen Man (2011) |Â Kindle it!
RELATED LINKS
- Author Colleen Collins
The author’s spiffy official web site. Check out the dartboard… - Props & Peeves
Private Eye Stories from A Real-Life P.I. by Colleen Collins - Props & Peeves II
More Private Eye Stories from A Real-Life P.I. by Colleen Collins
Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
