Background
Coggins was born in New Mexico in 1957 and attended Stanford University, where he earned an undergraduate degree in International Relations, a masters in Computer Science and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society.
(Caroline Stockwell has a secret: she and her best friend ...)
Caroline Stockwell has a secret: she and her best friend Monica are "cam girls." Soliciting cash donations and gifts via Amazon.com wish lists from anonymous admirers, the young women have put up a web site featuring still photographs, video and web diaries (aka blogs) to help pay their way through art college. But when Caroline goes missing and her mother Ellen engages jazz bass-playing PI August Riordan to find her, Riordan discovers her secret and it appears to everyone that someone she met through the web site is responsible for her disappearance. Set against the real-world backdrop of Internet predators using social networking sites like MySpace.com to find and ensnare their victims, Candy from Strangers is the first novel to explore the phenomenon of teenagers and young adults displaying themselves online in exchange for material favors--often without their parents' knowledge--which some are calling the newest form of prostitution.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1932557164/?tag=2022091-20
(Winnie doesn't remember the last time she felt anything b...)
Winnie doesn't remember the last time she felt anything below her neck. Her spine is severed at the seventh vertebrae, but thanks to implants from a sabotaged biomedical start-up, she has regained mobility. She is a prototype: a living, breathing-walking-demonstration of revolutionary technology that never made it to market. Her disability has become her armor. Because she doesn't register fatigue, she has trained relentlessly. Her hand, arm, and leg strength are off the scales for a woman, and she has honed self-defense techniques to channel that strength. She's a modern-day Amazon who feels no pain. When the sociopath who torpedoed the start-up sends killers to harvest the implants from her body, Winnie must team up with broken-down private investigator August Riordan to save both their lives--and derail sinister plans for perverse military applications of the technology.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1937495914/?tag=2022091-20
(When venture capitalist Ted Valmont is belatedly informed...)
When venture capitalist Ted Valmont is belatedly informed that the chief scientist of NeuroStimix--a biotech firm in which he has invested--is missing, it's not just business, it's personal. Not only is the scientist an old school chum, but his disappearance jeopardizes the development of NeuroStimix's most important product: a device intended to aid spinal cord injury victims. Since Valmont's twin brother, Tim, was paralyzed in a college driving accident, finding the scientist and getting him back into harness is of utmost importance to both brothers. Valmont engages August Riordan to assist in the search and the men soon discover that the disappearance is part of a larger conspiracy to use NeuroStimix technology for perverse applications. Terrorism. Prostitution. Slave labor. These are just the beginning. And when a beautiful, mysterious young woman comes onto the scene, it's impossible to say whether the technology will provide the ultimate means to save them all or be the catalyst for torturous, self-inflicted deaths...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1460979478/?tag=2022091-20
(The odyssey of María Eva Duarte de Perón--the Argentine f...)
The odyssey of María Eva Duarte de Perón--the Argentine first lady made famous in the play and the movie Evita--was as remarkable in death as it was in life. A few years after she succumbed to cervical cancer, her specially preserved body was taken by the military dictatorship that succeeded her deposed husband Juan. Hidden for sixteen years in Italy in a crypt under a false name, she was eventually exhumed and returned to Buenos Aires to be buried in an underground tomb said to be secure enough to withstand a nuclear attack. Or was she? When San Francisco private eye August Riordan engages in a flirtation with a beautiful university student from Buenos Aires, he witnesses her death in a tragic shooting and is drawn into mad hunt for Evita's remains. He needs all of his wits, his network of friends and associates, and an unexpected legacy from the dead father he has never known to help him survive the deadly intrigue between powerful Argentine movers and shakers, ex-military men, and a mysterious woman named Isis who is expert in ancient techniques of mummification. The fifth novel in the August Riordan series, The Big Wake-Up plunges everyman PI Riordan and his sidekick Chris Duckworth into their most terrifying and anguishing case ever. Winner of the winner of the 2010 Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY) in the Mystery/Suspense/Thriller Category.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1461144655/?tag=2022091-20
Coggins was born in New Mexico in 1957 and attended Stanford University, where he earned an undergraduate degree in International Relations, a masters in Computer Science and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society.
Stanford University.
While at Stanford, Coggins took creative writing classes with Tobias Wolff and Ron Hansen and wrote the first short story featuring August Riordan in a class for Hansen. This was published in 1986 in The New Black Mask, a revival of the famous Black Mask pulp magazine that launched the careers of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Coggins has worked in the Silicon Valley for such companies as Hewlett Packard and Netscape and although Riordan as a character is something of a technophobe, Coggins" novels often explore high technology themes and Silicon Valley culture.
Runoff described a fictional mayoral election in San Francisco where the results were altered by individuals who hacked the city"s electronic voting machines.
Prom Night and Other Manitoba-made Disasters was somewhat of a departure. A collection of humorous essays describing episodes in his life from school, career, and relationships, it features a number of anecdotes from his childhood in Phoenix, Arizona, including the title essay, "Prom Night," the improbable story of how shy and socially-awkward Coggins brought the homecoming queen of Central High School to the senior prom.
(When venture capitalist Ted Valmont is belatedly informed...)
(The odyssey of María Eva Duarte de Perón--the Argentine f...)
(Caroline Stockwell has a secret: she and her best friend ...)
(Winnie doesn't remember the last time she felt anything b...)