Elliot Forsman & Rivka Goldstein

Created by Gary Raymond Coffin

When we first meet him in Ogrodnik (2016), the first in the series, long-time Montreal criminology professor (he teaches a course in “Logical Deduction” at the university) and part-time private eye ELLIOT FORSMAN is at loose ends, growing older and going nowhere. He’s living on plastic cheese, packaged salami of dubious vintage and Bud Light, watching his tropical fish swim back and forth in their aquarium, estranged from his college-age son and mourning the loss of his father, murdered a month earlier, and of his wife, Sarah, three years previous.

Realizing the police investigation of his father’s murder isn’t exactly a top priority to them — they’ve more or less have written it off as a simple mugging gone wrong — the bookish Elliot decides it’s time to look into it himself. He brings the full forces of JFK Investigations, his detective agency, to bear — those full forces being an office over Sammy’s Diner on Sherbrooke near Marlowe, and RIVKA GOLDSTEIN, a former Montreal cop who’s now his associate, 5’10” of Israeli muscle.

But it’s not long before they realize that not only was his dad’s death more than a “simple” mugging — they’re up against a conspiracy that involves crooked cops, the pharmaceutical industry, organized crime, assorted hired thugs and a serial killer with a special interest in Rivka.

Montreal? A private eye? Count me in.

Since then, Elliot’s returned in three more adventures, City of Saints (2017), Passage into Darkness (2019), and Occam’s Razor (2021), which sees Rivka taking over JFK Investigations.

NOVELS

• Ogrodnik (2016) | Buy the book | Kindle it!
• City of Saints (2017) | Buy the book
• Passage into Darkness (2019) | Buy the book | Kindle it!
• Occam’s Razor (2021) | Buy this book | Kindle it!

COLLECTIONS

• Tales of Murder and Intrigue on the Streets of Montreal (2020) | Kindle it!
  Collects the first three novels.

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

• Murder in a Distinct Society
  Montréal and Other Québec Eyes
• Gary Raymond Coffin
  The author’s official web site.

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.