A Review and Tribute by Mark Coggins Edited by J. Kingston Pierce  Many fans of hard-boiled fiction are aware of the importance of Black Mask, the pulp magazine that flourished in the 1920s and 30s and launched the careers of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Erle Stanley Gardner. What fewer mystery readers may know … Continue reading The New Black Mask
Tag: Mark Coggins
My Scrapbook: Raymond Chandler’s Typewriter
My ScrapbookRaymond Chandler's Typewriter Is this the coolest thing ever or what? Long-time friend of the site, Mark Coggins, author of the acclaimed August Riordan private eye series, has scored a typewriter at an estate sale, Â conducted by auction house Doyle New York. And not just any typewriter. It's the the Olivetti Studio 44 that … Continue reading My Scrapbook: Raymond Chandler’s Typewriter
“Zen and the Art of Murder”
An excerpt from the novel by Elizabeth M. Cosin Featuring Zen Moses September 1998 CHAPTER ONE It rained the day I said goodbye to my best friend; the kind of storm that was packaged in a San Francisco-like cold front. December in Santa Monica could blow in from the Pacific like the draft from a meat … Continue reading “Zen and the Art of Murder”
The Dead Beat Scroll
An excerpt from the novel by Mark Coggins Featuring August Riordan September 2019 Chapter One: Golden Fingers The theme music for the quiz show Jeopardy! makes an unsettling ringtone. Although originally composed as a lullaby, its relentless, tick-tock, time-is-running-out associations can’t help but impinge upon your dreams if you’ve already nodded off. Other things that … Continue reading The Dead Beat Scroll
August Riordan
Created by Mark Coggins San Francisco private eye AUGUST RIORDANÂ once walked the mean streets of Phoenix, Arizona, way back when he first appeared in a novella entitled "There's No Such Thing as Private Eyes" in 1986. But when he returned twelve years later in his first novel, The Immortal Game (1999), he had relocated to … Continue reading August Riordan