|  When the world's most innovative computer chess software is stolen, wisecracking, jazz bass-playing PI August Riordan is hired to find it.
Sifting through a San Francisco peopled with bruising, ex-NFL henchmen, transvestite techno geeks, and alluring, drug-addicted dominatrices, Riordan has got his work cut out for him.
But with a smart-ass attitude like Riordan's, nothing is easy ...
A darkly comic sojourn through a town unrecognizable from the Tony Bennett song and the Rice-a-Roni ads, The Immortal Game is a Shamus, Barry, and Independent Publisher (IPPY) award nominee.
Selected by the San Francisco Chronicle, the Detroit
Free Press and January Magazine as one of the top ten
mysteries of the year.
Selected by mystery maven Otto Penzler as a “Penzler’s
Pick” for Amazon.com.
“Smart, stylish, sexy and amusingly insouciant. It's a
true find, a well-written and sophisticated addition to the
heralded San Francisco private-detective story…a panoramic
tour de force.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Mark Coggins writes tight prose with a clean,
unadorned style; he is a Hammett for the turn of the 21st
century.”
—Loren D. Estleman
“Gritty…seamy…very, very funny. [Coggins] has given
the form fresh life.”
—National Public Radio
"Here's a first novel that pays homage to Hammett,
Chandler, and every wisecracking PI in the genre, and
then some. It also introduces one of the most delightful
characters to come along in some time: August Riordan,
a jazz bass-playing PI who is cynical, irreverent, and a
laugh a minute.”
—Otto Penzler
“Coggins hauls us on a dark, hip journey into the grittier
parts of San Francisco, with only an occasional appearance
of the city we know from Rice-a-Roni ads…a
superb new take on a classic mystery form.”
—Detroit Free Press
“One of the best books of the year. It is truly a winner
on many levels … Reminiscent of golden age detective
novels, this book is a true gem.”
—Deadly Pleasures
“The ride through the mean streets of San Francisco is a
voyeur's delight.”
—January Magazine
“I loved the book! It has great characters, a terrific plot
and, of course, it is a great pleasure that chess is so integral
to the story.”
—Patrick Wolff, two-time US Chess Champion
"Coggins clearly recalls the old masters in his debut
novel. Think of it as The Maltese Falcon played out at
the end of the century. Short on the genre cliches that
have become all too common today, Coggins' novel has
all the power and wit that make a detective story into a
great read.”
—The Bookman’s Week
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