Detective Fiction, Thrillers, Crimes - Fiction, Crime Fiction, Other Mystery Categories
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Overview
The odyssey of María Eva Duarte de Perón--the Argentine first lady made famous in the play and the movie Evita--was as remarkable in death as it was in life. A few years after she succumbed to cervical cancer, her specially preserved body was taken by the military dictatorship that succeeded her deposed husband Juan. Hidden for sixteen years in Italy in a crypt under a false name, she was eventually exhumed and returned to Buenos Aires to be buried in an underground tomb said to be secure enough to withstand a nuclear attack.Or was she?
When San Francisco private eye August Riordan engages in a flirtation with a beautiful university student from Buenos Aires, he witnesses her death in a tragic shooting and is drawn into mad hunt for Evita’s remains. He needs all of his wits, his network of friends and associates, and an unexpected legacy from the dead father he has never known to help him survive the deadly intrigue between powerful Argentine movers and shakers, ex-military men, and a mysterious woman named Isis who is expert in ancient techniques of mummification.
The fifth novel in the August Riordan series, The Big Wake-Up plunges everyman PI Riordan and his sidekick Chris Duckworth into their most terrifying and anguishing case ever.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Coggins's outstanding fifth mystery to feature San Francisco PI August Riordan (after 2007's Runoff) successfully blends an over-the-top premise with an unrelentingly grim plot. Soon after flirting with an attractive young woman in a Laundromat, Riordan watches in horror as an apparently deranged cable car operator guns her and an older woman down at a cable car stop. Riordan pursues the killer and stops his bloody rampage. The Argentine family of the first victim, 23-year-old Araceli Rivero, hires him to investigate an unrelated matter, the location of Araceli's dead aunt, whose body was transferred from a Milan cemetery to somewhere in the Bay Area. After quickly getting a promising lead, Riordan learns that his clients have been less than straight with him—the missing corpse is actually that of Evita Perón. Coggins pulls no punches as the suspenseful action builds to a violent act of vigilantism. (Nov.)Bruce Grossman
"In what easily could have been called The Maltese Peron, Coggins’ detective novel is infused with enough humor that it will make you forget how bloody things get... Coggins’ writing will have you ... engrossed... He’s a gifted storyteller who infuses not only humor to balance out the brutality, but also throws in plenty of pulp-like affectations, leaving readers to clamor for more."Charles Silet
"[August] Riordan is ... a tough, wisecracking, chip off the old Philip Marlowe block. Mark Coggins writes a fast-paced, and at times very funny crime novel. The Big Wake-Up, a play on The Big Sleep, is an updated version of a traditional private-eye novel and a good one at that."Elliott Swanson
"First-class yarn."Jon Breen
"Begins with a stunning action scene of murder by cable car and proceeds to unveil a[n] ... utterly entertaining pulp-magazine plot, including a sinister female villain known as Isis. The Maltese Falcon-style treasure hunt has a most intriguing MacGuffin."Reed Business Information
Starred Review. "Outstanding ... Coggins pulls no punches as the suspenseful action builds to a violent act of vigilantism."Staff Reviewer
Starred Review. "Outstanding ... Coggins pulls no punches as the suspenseful action builds to a violent act of vigilantism."Book Details
Published
May 12, 2011
Publisher
CreateSpace
Pages
282
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9781461144656