ROCCO salutes EJ Copperman (and Jeff Cohen, too!)

Merow!

Way before the human got into writing cozies, she and I were a fan of a gentleman named Jeff Cohen.

Jeff is a native of the Garden State, New Jersey (where the human and I currently make our home...for now)  and has been writing for a living ever since graduating from Rutgers.  Jeff has had numerous articles published in such publications as Writer's Digest, TV Guide and Premiere (and the New York Times, too)

The human first became a fan with Jeff's Double Feature Mystery series.  Published by Berkley Prime Crime back in the day when they liked cozies, it began with SOME LIKE IT HOT-BUTTERED. 

The series follows the adventures of Elliot Freed and his all-comedy movie theater, Comedy Tonight. The other books in the series are IT HAPPENED ONE KNIFE and A NIGHT AT THE OPERATION.

And then there's Jeff's good friend, E.J.Copperman.

Some people say that Jeff and EJ are so close it's almost like talking to the same person!  Like Jeff, EJ writes mysteries.  His Haunted Guesthouse series, formerly published by Berkley and now by Crooked Lane, is immensely popular. 

It follows the adventues of Alison Kerby, a divorcee with a nine year old daughter who buys a huge Victorian on the Jersey shore to renovate into a guesthouse.  The house isn't empty, though. It's haunted by two spirits, Paul and Maxie, and after a conk on the head Alison is able to both see and talk to them.  Paul, a former PI, soon convinces Alison to go into that same business with him.  

EJ writes three other series as well.  The Mysterious Detective series, published by Crooked Lane, has an unusual premise. 

Rachel Goldman is a midlist crime fiction writer whose slightly odd protagonist Duffy Madison consults with the local prosecutor’s office on missing person cases. She’s just finishing up her latest novel in Written Off, the first in the series, when her phone rings. The caller is a man who says he needs her help: he’s a consultant for the local prosecutor’s office who specializes in missing person cases and a mystery novelist has gone missing. He wants Rachel to help. And he says his name is Duffy Madison.

The "Agent to the Paws" series from St. Martin's deals with a woman, Kay Powell, who's a theatrical agent...to four footed clients. 

She thinks she's got it made with her first client, a lovable dog...until his owner turns up dead in the dog's dish.  the book is titled, appropriately, DOG DISH OF DOOM.

E.J. collaborates with Jeff Cohen on the Asperger’s Mysteries from Midnight Ink, in which Samuel Hoenig opens a storefront in a strip mall and hangs a sign (with tape) in the window reading Questions Answered. A borderline genius who happens to have an Autism Spectrum Disorder, Samuel narrates his tales with a… unique perspective. In the opening novel, The Question of the Missing Head, Samuel and his new associate Janet Washburn are asked a simple question by the head of a New Jersey cryonics institute: “Who took one of our frozen heads?” And the game is afoot. Or ahead. Or something.

If you haven't tried either of these remarkable writers, I suggest you go out and pick up one of their books today!  You will not be disappointed.  Or, you could enter our giveaway!

Leave your name and email address below to win a copy of the latest HAUNTED GUESTHOUSE MYSTERY, THE HOSTESS WITH THE GHOSTESS!

Find Jeff and EJ at:

http://www.ejcopperman.com/

http://www.jeffcohenbooks.com/wp/?page_id=2