Cohen, Mark 1958-

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COHEN, Mark 1958-

PERSONAL: Born 1958, in Denver, CO; married; children: two daughters. Education: Whitman College, B.A., 1980; University of Colorado School of Law, J.D., 1983. Hobbies and other interests: Fitness, karate, local government.

ADDRESSES: Home—Nederland, CO. Offıce—Muddy Gap Press, P.O. Box 1801, Boulder, CO 80306. Agent—Sandra Bond, Bond Literary Agency, 1430 Bates Ave., Englewood, CO 80113. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: United States Air Force, judge advocate general and special assistant U.S. attorney, 1983-87; Cohen, Vacanti, Higgins & Shattuck, Omaha, NE, law partner, 1987-95; private practice lawyer in Boulder, CO and Nederland, CO, 1995—; part-time municipal judge; writer. Founder of Muddy Gap Press, Boulder, Member, Nederland board of trustees.

MEMBER: Colorado Municipal League, DART, Inc.

AWARDS, HONORS: Citation, Book Sense Top Ten Mysteries of 2002, for The Fractal Murders.

WRITINGS:

The Fractal Murders: A Pepper Keane Mystery, Muddy Gap Press (Boulder, CO), 2002, Mysterious Press (New York, NY), 2004.

Also author of The Ultimate Self-Defense Primer; Legal Self Defense for School Owners; An Ounce of Prevention: Why Every Divorcing Father Needs a Lawyer; The Treasure of Pirate Dad; Oasis in Nebraska: The Forest That Man Made; and Security Tips for Mountain Dwellers. Contributor of articles to American Jurisprudence Proof of Facts and to periodicals.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Bluetick Revenge, for Mysterious Press (New York, NY).

SIDELIGHTS: Mark Cohen is a practicing attorney and municipal court judge who writes mysteries set in the mountainous sections of Colorado. Cohen's series protagonist, Pepper Keane, is a disaffected attorney-turned-private eye who lives in the mountains with his dogs and his philosophy texts. In Cohen's debut, The Fractal Murders, Pepper is hired by a professor at the University of Colorado—Boulder who fears that a trio of seemingly unrelated deaths in various parts of the country are actually murders, because all three victims were specialists in fractal geometry. As Pepper investigates, he learns about fractal geometry—and about the desperately competitive business of university publishing.

Three agents tried to sell The Fractal Murders with no success, but Cohen's faith in the book was so strong that he decided to self-publish it. Forming his own publishing house, Muddy Gap Press, he ordered 2,000 copies. One of these copies found its way into the hands of agent Sandra Bond, and she was able to sell the book to Mysterious Press. The Fractal Murders was also named one of Book Sense's Top Ten Mysteries of 2002.

As an attorney Cohen has crusaded against incomprehensible legal jargon, and critics commended The Fractal Murders for its clear prose and the hero's dry humor, even in dire situations. Connie Fletcher in Booklist praised Pepper's "wry wit" while calling TheFractal Murders "a consistently absorbing first novel." A Publishers Weekly contributor likewise found the work "an accomplished debut," noting that Cohen's writing style "is direct and amazingly lucid."

In an interview with Bookbrowse.com, Cohen said of The Fractal Murders: "I believe [the book] will expose many readers to the concept of fractals and the role they play in our world, and these are readers who otherwise would be completely unaware of the concept."