Created by Joe Lofgreen
Once upon a time, a long, long time ago…
Former safecracker turned Santa Barbara private eye AUGUST “AUGGIE” WEST was short, bald, and chubby, and not exactly burning with ambition. His partner, Jim Padova, wanted to get into security consulting, seeing as their detective biz wasn’t actually setting the world on fire, but Auggie thought that sounded too much like actual work.
So, in walks the wife of a local hotshot real estate developer, offering Auggie $5,000.00 to steal some jewelry from her husband’s office safe.
Auggie’s one appearance, As Easy as Speed, was published online as what the author called a serialized “cyber novel” in 1997, and was featured as a prominent part of Joe’s Detective Pages, which way back then I thought was “an excellent site.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joe Lofgreen has wandered the country finding a place where he fits, working as a missionary, a supermarket clerk, a newspaper reporter, an editor, a manager in high-tech manufacturing and a real estate agent. He is now trying his hand as an organic farmer in rural Cochise County, Arizona. His online novel As Easy As Speed was an early online serialized hit when the Internet was just a baby. Back in 1998, Joe said he was working on a more polished version of As Easy As Speed for possible print publication, and another, non-Augie book that would be darker and more violent. But “there’s more Auggie to come because I really like the character.”
I thought Joe’s web site was long gone, but loyal follower Steve Johnson reports that at least some of Joe’s Detective Pages, and a chapter of As Easy as Speed, were findable as of August 14, 2025, at the Internet Archive’s Way Back Machine..
CYBER NOVEL
- As Easy As Speed (1997)
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- Joe’s Twenty-Five Fave Detective Novels
As chosen by Joe Lofgreen from Joe’s Detective Pages
- Internet Archive’s Way Back Machine
At least some of Joe’s Detective Pages, and a chapter of As Easy as Speed, were findable as of August 14, 2025. Thanks, Steve.
Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith, with much gratitude to Steve.
At least some of Joe’s Detective Pages, and at least eleven chapters of Easy as Speed, were findable this morning at the Internet Archive, https://web.archive.org/web/19970110233914/http://www.lofgreen.com/detect.htm. I did not search exhaustively…dog wants walking…but did not that entries from much later years included only offer to sell the website. I am guessing that the domain was grabbed by a pirate.
Thanks, Steve.
And all eighteen chapters of the novel are available in a 1998 archive of the Lofgreen pages,
https://web.archive.org/web/19980426004823/http://lofgreen.com/detect.htm. I printed them to pdf. And, I guess since you last looked, Joe Lofgreen has a book on Amazon, not a mystery. His About the Author page mentions As Easy as Speed as an early internet publication. I obviously have too much time on my hands…