Short Stories

There’s No Such Thing As Private Eyes

The fifth story in The New Black Mask #4—a revival of the famous Black Mask pulp magazine—”There’s No Such Thing As Private Eyes” marks the first appearance in print of private investigator August Riordan. Read more about its publication history in an article Mark wrote for The Rap Sheet.

Ride a Red Dragon

Originally published in November 2001 in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Vol. 118 No. 5, “Ride a Red Dragon” was later anthologized in The Crooked Road Volume 2. It’s a 1920s private eye story inspired by Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op.

The Adventure of the Black Bishop

Appearing in a chess fiction anthology with stories by authors known for work with a chess theme—including Katherine Neville (The Eight) and Stephen L. Carter (The Emperor of Ocean Park)—”The Adventure of the Black Bishop” received this praise from two-time United States Women’s Champion Jennifer Shahade in a review of the anthology in Chess Life:

The crowning piece is a mystery staring Sherlock Holmes by San Francisco based mystery writer Mark Coggins. This funny and perfectly paced piece kept me on the h-file of my chessboard.

Mockingbird and The Russian Egg

“What happened to the Maltese Falcon?” is the question answered by the linked stories “Mockingbird” and “The Russian Egg” which originally appeared in Eclectica Magazine. Sam Spade pastiches that pick up right where Dashiell Hammett’s novel leaves off, they are now available as a coda to Falcon in an illustrated edition published by Poltroon Press.

Country Comfort