Customer Reviews

Bluetick Revenge

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Mark Cohen is a Denver native who is a former JAG and municipal judge in Boulder, Colorado. He presently lives in Nederland, Colorado. His first mystery was THE FRACTAL MURDERS, and BLUETICK REVENGE is the follow-up Pepper Keane mystery.

Mysteries involving private eyes with a military background are particularly engaging, but add an ex-Marine with a JAG background who has a law degree with a penchant for Philosophy, who formed and quickly retired from his own law office, and you have the character of Pepper Keane. Pepper may have left the vagaries of the law behind, but his ex-partner, Matt, calls on him to steel a champion bluetick hound for a client ready to turn state's evidence on her husband, who is the leader of a biker empire called the Sons of Satan. Pepper becomes her bodyguard until she can enter the Witness Protection Program, but she decides to take off. Pepper accepts a job from her husband to find her, and when he double-crosses the husband, his life is suddenly in jeopardy. Pepper's girl is teaching in China, so she is safe. He enlists his friend Scott to help him find the girl, collect evidence against the bikers, and stay out of the line of fire. Scott is as much of a Renaissance man as Pepper:

"Scott McCutcheon. Unemployed astrophysicist. Former Navy SEAL. Fifth-degree black belt. One-time field goal kicker for the Colorado Buffaloes. Brad Pitt with a receding hairline. I thought about him as I sipped coffee at a small table beside the fireplace inside Nederland's Pioneer Inn this cold Saturday morning."

Cohen leads the reader right into the world of sadistic bikers who think nothing of killing to gain their ends. Pepper and Scott aren't afraid to follow them into their lair and beat them with a combination of military skills and intelligent strategy. Pepper's dogs add a rich texture to an already excellent plot, and the bluetick hound is Cohen's centerpiece of the tale.

Mark Cohen has a way with words. His style is crystal clear, his characters jump out at the reader. His background in law, the military, and with self defense makes him a knowledgeable author. BLUETICK REVENGE is a mystery the reader can't put down, and Mark Cohen is a bright new star on the mystery scene.

Shelley Glodowski
Senior Reviewer

Mark Cohen and his signature character, hard-nosed PI Pepper Keane, were new to me when I picked up this book on a recommendation. What a great find for me as Cohen effectively fully develops his characters, makes them interesting enough that I care for them or against them, and employs wonderfully detailed descriptions of the cities and mountains of Colorado, Wyoming, and Idaho that make me wish I were there. And, he very adroitly creates a sense of constant tension as the mystery deepens and new layers are added to old layers.

Cohen's leading characters have deeper backgrounds than most fictional PI's. Pepper Keane is a PI with a military background rather than a law enforcement background. He is an ex-marine with a law degree who opened his own law firm and soon retired from it to become a PI, probably because his studies of philosophy and his inner search for his core ideals lead him to the freedom of being his own boss. His best friend and sometimes partner, Scott McCutcheon, is "an unemployed astrophysicist, former navy SEAL, fifth-degree black belt, and one-time field goal kicker for the Colorado Buffaloes." See, I told you they had deeper back stories. And Keane's array of support characters are back including his love interest, Jayne Smyers, brother Troy, Uncle Ray, and his two great canine friends, Buck and Wheat.

In this stand alone follow up to "The Fractal Murders", Keane agrees to dognap a prized bluetick hound that is part of a bitter divorce conflict as a favor for his old partner Matt. This seemingly simple assignment leads to an extension assignment requiring him to babysit and protect Matt's client, Karlynn Slade and her hound, from her soon- to- be- ex, Thaddeus Bugg, a vicious, morals challenged leader of a sadistic biker gang and a major drug producer. Keane is retained to protect her until she can enter the Witness Protection Plan from where she can testify against her ex husband. As you might guess, Karlynn dumps her protector and heads off for parts unknown. Bugg is desperate to find her since she not only can incriminate him, but she also has stolen his hound AND a half million in cash. In a comical yet hard to believe side storyline, Keane agrees to a request from Bugg, who supposedly has chosen him randomly as a PI, to search for his missing wife.

The threads to this story get murkier as Pepper and Scott pursue Karlynn, FBI agents think Pepper may be assisting Karlynn's escape, Bugg may or may not know of Pepper's duplicity, and a cold case involving the murder of Keane's cousin suddenly emerges from the characters they encounter in their pursuit. Pepper and Scott have interesting encounters with bikers, skinheads, racial supremacists, and survivalists in their pursuit of Karlynn and for knowledge that may lead them to the proof needed to solve his cousin's murder. They prove themselves worthy not only through their military and martial arts backgrounds but also with superior tactics and thinking. The camaraderie and humor among the main characters is a welcome respite from the fast pacing of the plot line.

I agree with those who find a similarity in Cohen's writing to that of Robert Parker. He is masterful at developing his characters as well as his sense of place. He moves the storyline in a brisk, fast paced manner but he doesn't take shortcuts that might offend the reader. The book is very entertaining replete with action, excitement, double crosses, humor, suspense, and a satisfying conclusion. Not to be overlooked are the moral dilemmas that Pepper and Scott work through as they deal with potential killers and the need for information. It is nice to see a leading character agonize a bit over diving into the deep gray between black and white.

Attorney "Big" Matt Simms of the Denver law firm of Keane, Simms & Mercante hires private investigator Pepper Keane to perform two jobs for his client, Karlynn Slade. First he must "dognap" her canine from her husband and second he must keep her safe from him. Pepper knows neither duty will be easy because her husband is Thaddeus Bugg, head of the most violent drug dealing biker gang in Colorado, Sons of Satan. Matt explains that Karlynn left Thaddeus taking 300K with her only to have the FBI threaten her with arrest if she failed to cooperate on bringing down her ex and his cohorts. She agreed to life in the witness protection program instead of prison as long as Prince her bluetick coonhound joins her.

Learning that there is a bounty on whoever stole Bugg's mutt, the simple job turns more complex than the DNA double helix when Karlynn vanishes. Expecting the SOS crowd to come after him, Pepper is shocked when instead Thaddeus hires him to find her. However, the case spins further out of control when the trail leads to a cold case murder. Pepper would like to expedite himself in one piece and alive from this mess, but knows he has some difficult decisions to make to do so.

BLUETICK REVENGE is an exciting private investigative tale that is filled with much more action and less cerebral concepts than the incredibly superb predecessor THE FRACTAL MURDERS although some key characters reappear in this tale. Still this is a strong entry as the hero has extremely thorny choices to make in which morality is gray. Though not the mathematical delight of the previous keen tale in spite of math Professor Jane Smyers on hand, readers will take immense pleasure with this powerful thriller in which nothing is sound byte black and white.

Harriet Klausner

I enjoyed Mark Cohen's first book, The Fractal Murders so I took a chance on Bluetick Revenge and I am glad that I did. I only wish Cohen did more writing. He has a unique style that appeals to me in somewhat the same way that James Lee Burke does without attempting to emulate Burke's Dave Robicheaux. Pepper Keane is a different kind of renegade but the willingness to bend rules out of shape is a shared commodity that is equally entertaining in both characters. Cohen brings Boulder, Colorado to life, similarly showing the sordid side of this Rocky Mountain bastion of liberality. All in all, this is just a pleasure to sit and read.

I'm in the process of reading 10 popular mystery writers in rapid succession because I want to analyze what makes a mystery good and what makes it sell. I included Bluetick Revenge because I read Mark Cohen's The Fractal Murders and couldn't figure out why he wasn't yet a popular author. I thought that book was excellent.

And I think this one is just as good. It's well written and funny, the plot is tight and complex but not confusing, the characters are well drawn and the ending is satisfying.

In terms of quality, his books are comparable to the most popular. He's as good as the best and better than the churners.

I expected to discover that his second book didn't hold up, that he sounded amateurish or that the plot sagged in the middle. But nothing like that happened. Bluetick Revenge an engrossing, amusing read. So the mystery remains unsolved. I don't know why his mysteries aren't gracing the Costco book tables. I wish they were, and I wish there were more Pepper Keane mysteries.

Enjoyed this book very much. Don't know what happened with the publisher or company that put the book together, but the last 10 pages were all out of sequence. Maybe it was just my copy. But, all in all, a good read.

Bluetick Revenge is the second book in the Pepper Keane mystery series. Following The Fractal Murders by Mark Cohen, Bluetick Revenge is a fast-paced action mystery book about a P.I. named Pepper Keane. Once a dog-napper, Pepper has now taken on the job of protecting Karlynn (a sadistic biker's wife) from Bugg (the sadistic biker :)). The story, however, evolves into something more when Pepper discovers the where abouts of the man who killed Hal and an FBI agent.

The characters and their style really seem to jump out at me, more so than other books. The clarity of the messages sent made the book quite understandable. Although there was no mystery plot per-se, this book still kept me hooked.

I would highly reccommend anyone looking for a good, easy-to-read mystery to read this.

I had read the first in this series, "The Fractal Murders," which I enjoyed, but this was even better. His style reminds me of the very best of Robert Parker--sense of place, great characters and dialogue-without the things which have begun to bother me. I very much enjoy the relationship Keane has with his friends, family, and even with the witness. There's no pretentiousness, or annoying girlfriend, but there is humor although people keep telling Keane he's not as funny as he thinks he is, good action and suspense. It was an exciting, enjoyable read.

I read Cohen's first Pepper Keane story, "The Fractal Murders", because it looked like (and was) a different twist on the murder mystery novel. Cohen handled the concepts of fractals very well, and he wove a credible story around the idea that applied mathematics can be worth a lot of money, even enough to kill for.

This novel wasn't nearly as inventive. The characters were colorful, but the plot wavered between being rather ordinary and being somewhat unbelievable. (As when Keane accepted a job to find a dog that was stolen from the murderous head of a biker gang, when Keane was in fact himself the dognapper. C'mon.)

The real problem with this book, though, is the writer's annoying habit of adding trivial details. He has Keane describing the appearance of nearly every character using society-page details of colors, patterns, fragrances, clothes styles, cloth types and hairstyles. This prissy level of description does not jive with the tough-guy image Keane tries to project. And if this were not enough, there are useless details of Keane and his buddies running, pumping iron, doing squats, performing Kata and doing other exercises to manscape their bodies. Boring and a bit gender-bending.
I kept wondering if Cohen would have named his character Queen there hadn't already been a fictional detective with that name. (Yes, Pepper has a girlfriend, but their relationship has issues.)

Mark Cohen Does a great job in telling this gripping story. Relating to his previous book "The Fractal Murders" including the great Pepper Keane. If your looking for a fast pace suspenseful,thriller with a great storyline this is it.