Books published by Coffeetown Press

Eddie Collins' part-time actor pursuits take on a new dimension when his ex-wife, Elaine Weddington, turns up dead while filming her latest movie Flames of Desire. The production's insurance company hires Eddie to represent their interests in the Americana Pictures film. Private eye is his main gig now, although he doesn't turn his back on acting jobs when they come his way.Elaine was a star of sorts, though her pictures were B-movies and never up for major awards. Encroaching middle age meant her leading-lady days were numbered, and she worked with a lot of jealous wannabes. Did one of them off her? What about her personal assistant or live-in boyfriend?While searching through Elaine's trailer, Eddie finds a list of initials with corresponding phone numbers. As he gradually ticks off the entries, he begins to form an unwelcome, less idealized version of Elaine. Then an assistant director is killed as she is about to share a damning revelation. The quest to identify one set of initials almost puts him in the hospital. Can Eddie handle the truth? Will it set him free, or kill him?Originally published in 2012, Murder Unscripted was a finalist for the Shamus Award. Book 1 in the Eddie Collins Mystery series. 

Hollywood PI, sometime actor Eddie Collins is doing a bit on a sitcom when he receives an SOS from an A-list friend. Mike Ford's Oscar has been stolen during a home invasion and Ford's girlfriend has drowned in the swimming pool. Did she surprise the burglar? Whoever it was left behind threatening letters, and Eddie is hired to see if he can unearth their source.All the dots connect around a movie Ford directed and acted in several years earlier: Red Desert. More than a few people associated with that shoot recall it less than fondly. Is one of them harboring a deadly grudge? Eddie has hired Reggie, an old Army buddy, to do surveillance. Soon Reggie, Eddie's secretary Mavis, and everyone associated with Eddie Collins and Mike Ford seem to be targets. And smoke from the foothills is encroaching on Eddie's Hollywood home/office. Is Eddie's world about to go up in flames?Originally published in 2015, Red Desert was a finalist for the Shamus Award. Book 2 in the Eddie Collins Mystery series. 

For PI Eddie Collins, the moment Carla Rizzoli sashays into his office casts him deliciously into a scene from a classic noir. Only this femme fatale is a sweet ghost from his past, a time when he made his living exclusively as an actor. Then she was a full-time actress too, and they'd dated briefly before an old flame came back into her life. Now she's known as Velvet La Rose and making a steady living as an exotic dancer at the Feline Follies. She needs Eddie's services to find her missing brother Frankie Rizzoli, who sent her a cryptic message warning her to watch her back.Eddie falls hard for Carla, who hasn't given up on acting. In fact, she's about to start work on a B-movie, Festival of Death. Now motivated by more than a paycheck, Eddie searches for Frankie, last seen hiding out among the homeless. Frankie was once a member of the military police, and an old photo identifies an old Army buddy, James Curran, who starts to cross paths with both Eddie and Carla with increasing frequency.What is Frankie mixed up in and why doesn't he want to be found? How does James Curran figure in? As Eddie questions the residents of Skid Row and works undercover as an extra in Festival of Death, he searches in vain for the links between Frankie and James and Carla. He needs answers soon, or Carla may slip through his fingers again, this time into oblivion.Book 3 in the Eddie Collins Mystery series, which began with Murder Unscripted and Red Desert. 

Moments of attentiveness illuminate our world, interrupting the rush of time to make each flash a revelation. Stopping to see what we may not have noticed, to listen, to feel, to remember past sensations, deepens our insights. This collection of poems examines the art of seeing with all the senses, unveiling the essential realities hidden in common objects and experiences. The attraction of rabbit to ripening pear, the crunch of shells on the beach, connections with strangers, with our families and places from the past, with a fresco, a wood engraving, a Bach oratorio... these small epiphanies are "the lingering strands of light...that bind each morning to the next."

In 1971, a wounded young man runs with his daughter in the woods at night. As he collapses, he tells the little girl to run, and she does. Eighteen years later, in October 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake buries twenty-two-year-old Angel Kelley under a collapsed building. Her adoptive mother Judith is diagnosed with cancer while her deepest secrets surface in national news. In nearby Silicon Valley, Reese Camden loses her husband in an accident that kills him and critically injures their five-year-old daughter Madison. As news images of Angel's rescue emerge, Detective Laura Redleaf recognizes Judith from an unsolved missing child case. She travels to Santa Cruz and learns from Judith that Reese is actually Angel's biological mother Teresa, who has always known that Judith had her child. But Teresa has already fled and reinvented herself yet again, leaving her second daughter Madison in the hospital. Facing a kidnapping charge, Judith refuses medical treatment and bars Angel from visiting her in prison. For life to move forward, Teresa must reclaim her identity and confront her terrible past. In the end, it will take more than tons of rubble to crush the spirits of these four strong-willed women as they fight for their families, seek redemption, and find love.

Two poor Kenyan men visiting the U.S. are found dead, one in jail, one on the street. Both used forged UN documents to enter the country. Valentin Vermeulen's superiors have no interest in the plight of undocumented immigrants, but they want him to stop the fraud. The clues take Vermeulen from New York City to Newark, where he riles a woman known as The Broker, then to Vienna.Earle Jackson, a small-time hustler and the last person to speak with one of the dead Kenyans, has taken the man's passport and money. He also finds a note listing an address in Newark, where his efforts to cash in on the situation go awry. Fleeing for his life, Jackson flies to Nairobi using the dead man's passport.Book 2 in the Valentin Vermeulen Thriller series.

Ritu Roy, a constable with an all-female United Nations peacekeeping unit in Darfur, Sudan, has been shot dead. Her superiors call it a random shooting. Her best friend thinks otherwise. She s found a bullet casing from a sniper s rifle, an uncommon weapon in the refugee camp. The case remains closed until Valentin Vermeulen arrives to conduct a routine audit. As an investigator with the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services, his job is to ferret out fraud. The casing is the first clue that Ritu may have stumbled onto a major criminal operation.Solving the mystery of Ritu s death leads Vermeulen down a perilous path. With the help of journalist Tessa Bishonga, he visits the hidden camp of a notorious rebel leader. On the streets of Port Sudan he dodges a parade of shady characters. In the end, Vermeulen must expose the players in the not so legitimate business of supplying weapons to Sudan before they can hunt him down. Book 1 in the Valentin Vermeulen Thriller series.

A woman's earth-shattering encounter with her best friend's supremely well-hung lover sets her on a quest to reassert her sexual power. But how long will her pliant, poorly endowed husband be willing to go along for the ride? Is it really in his nature to play the willing cuckold or is his resentment building? A portrait of a very modern marriage.

Everyone in the small seaside village of Taviscombe is looking forward to the festival. So is Mrs. Sheila Malory-that is, until the unpleasant Adrian Palgrove joins the planning committee. Mrs. Malory, an avid reader of nineteenth century literature, is dismayed to find the man constantly in her path. First Adrian gleefully informs her that he has been appointed executor of the estate of a renowned author, whose private life he intends to expose. Soon his bad behavior has alienated his fellow committee members. One of his many enemies despises him enough to murder him just as the festival is underway. Mrs. Malory has impressive credentials when it comes to solving murders, but with so many suspects, she hardly knows where to begin. The fourth of Hazel Holt's Mrs. Malory mysteries.

Mrs. Edith Rossiter, a rich matron, also has a wealth of greedy relatives-a cold-blooded daughter, a wastrel son, and a desperate sister. Because she is in excellent health, none of them can hope to inherit anytime soon ... So when Edith vanishes from Taviscombe''s finest nursing home, the police suspect the worst, despite the lack of evidence. Mrs. Rossiter was a close friend of Mrs. Sheila Malory, who as usual applies her skills as an amateur detective to delve into the lives of the missing woman and her hopeful heirs. Was Edith addicted to sleeping pills? What did the mysterious couple seen in Edith''s company want from her? The truth will be stranger and more startling than even Mrs. Malory could have possibly imagined. The third of Hazel Holt''s Mrs. Malory mysteries.

Matthew Freeman''s newest poetry collection presents a romantic vision wherein the environment can range from ecstatic to sinister. Steeped in urban shamanism, the poems reflect a desperate search for the American Sublime, the author''s search for the clarity of salvation, his love of language, and his hope that the poor and destitute will not be forgotten.

Widow Sheila Malory has been looking forward to her stay at the Bodleian Library in Oxford as a chance to research wartime women writers and catch up with old friends from her college years, the one "purely happy" time in her whole life. Her relaxing idyll is interrupted when a librarian, Gwen Richmond, is crushed to death beneath collapsed bookshelves. After the "accident" proves to be murder, Mrs. Malory's godson Tony, who also works in the library, asks her to help investigate. Gwen was manipulative and unpleasant, so there are no shortage of suspects. The dead woman's World War II diary reveal dreadful truths that may lead to the killer; they will also force Mrs. Malory to revisit the past in a new and colder light. The second of Hazel Holt's Mrs. Malory mysteries.

Private Eye Jackson "Doc" Holiday investigates fraud, a crime he knows intimately. He was once a respected and successful mortgage banker who laundered more than 100 million dollars in dirty money. Although never convicted, he has been blackballed from banking. After his drinking buddy, a Catholic priest named Jesus Cortez, is shot dead in the driveway of Doc''s Berkeley home, he sets out to find his killer. The case takes him in search of an old confederate in Portland, where he begins to suspect that the murder of Jesus is connected to a money laundering scheme suspiciously similar to Doc''s own. As Doc delves in further, he crosses swords with a scheming matriarch, a bent cop, a femme fatale, and a master criminal. Whoever''s at the bottom of this business has already killed and is facing "The Big Bitch," or life in prison. And they''re not afraid to kill again. Book 1 in the Jackson "Doc" Holiday Mystery series.