The Fix Is In

With a scant two months left before balloting begins in the 2008 U.S. presidential race, it’s a good time be publishing novels with a political election theme. Surely, Mark Coggins’ publisher, Bleak House, took that into consideration when it scheduled the release of his new book, Runoff, the fourth installment in his private eye August Riordan series. The story of election shenanigans in a San Francisco mayor’s race, Runoff gets January Magazine critic Stephen Miller’s vote as a work worthy of wider recognition.

Writing in January today, Miller applauds Runoff’s unlikely opening chase sequence (“a scene that wouldn’t be out of place in a Michael Mann film”), its exploration of the political ties between San Francisco’s City Hall and its famed Chinatown, and Riordan’s development as a series protagonist (he “has more than a trace of Philip Marlowe’s knight errant in him, which would do Raymond Chandler proud”). He also cheers Coggins for his unflinching willingness to portray “the violence endemic to gangs, large cities, and powerful business interests.”

You can--and should--read the whole review here.