The Fractal Murders

by Mark Cohen

Overview

Jane Smythe, a math professor specializing in fractal geometry, is shocked to learn that three professors with the same specialty have died amid mysterious circumstances. That's where Pepper Keane, an ex-Marine turned PI with an encyclopedic knowledge of rock 'n' roll, comes in. He finds himself attracted to Professor Smythe and is determined to discover the root of these incidents. At first, he can't find any evidence that the three dead mathematicians even knew each other. But Keane, with the help of his hacker best friend and exercise guru brother, continues to dig. Suspects begin to appear and then multiply as they race through the rocky terrain of Colorado to Mexico, Boston, and Nebraska - with the main suspect an FBI agent who is also Keane's worst enemy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780446614917
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	07/01/2005
Series:	Pepper Keane Mysteries Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.77(d)

About the Author

A former JAG and now one of two municipal judges in Boulder, Colorado, Mark Cohen's writing has appeared in magazines that include Inside Kung Fu and Camping & RV. The Fractal Murders was his first novel.

Editorial Reviews

A surprising premise and an extraordinary theme equal an accomplished debut. That's simple math, but the geometric concepts that fuel Cohen's book are far more advanced. Former federal prosecutor Pepper Keane is hired by University of Colorado mathematics professor Jayne Smyers to look into the deaths of three colleagues who had nothing in common other than their field of expertise fractal geometry. An FBI investigation prompted by Smyers found no link among the geographically separate, methodologically different deaths (two of them murders, one ruled a suicide). An appealing maverick, Keane lives in a small mountain town near Boulder with two animal rescue dogs, collects old-time rock 'n' roll and country music tunes and likes to read philosophy. In his dogged effort to connect the three deaths, Keane butts heads with an old FBI nemesis and finds an occasional ally, as well as an unexpected rival. While the killer's identity turns out to be disappointingly ordinary, Cohen's writing style is direct and amazingly lucid, even when handling the concepts and applications of fractal geometry or outlining the tenets of Martin Heidegger. Readers looking for something refreshingly different should be well satisfied. Agent, Sandra Bond. (May 13) FYI: An earlier version of this novel was published in 2002 by Muddy Gap. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Cohen's debut, self-published in 2002, plunges a federal prosecutor-turned-private eye into the unexpectedly murderous world of higher mathematics. What are the odds that three of the country's leading experts in fractal geometry-the study of those minute and indivisible patterns that structure apparently random shapes like shorelines-would die violently within a few months? University of Colorado math professor Jayne Smyers, who sent her paper on fractals to five peers only to learn that three of them were unavailable for comment, doesn't believe in that kind of coincidence. She wants Pepper Keane, a former judge-magistrate for the Marines with a taste for Heidegger and Gordon Lightfoot, to find out what's going on and whether she's in danger herself. Buzz-cut Pepper, who not only reads Being and Time but insists on explaining it to you, is little more than a collection of cliches, the most important of which is his grudge against Mike Polk, the Denver FBI agent responsible for his lover's death, and for burying the current case in denial that the three deaths were related. But Cohen has a gift for making fractals, which have unexpectedly lucrative applications, not only accessible but exciting. And his hunt for the killer-abetted, of course, by the obligatory colorful sidekicks and burgeoning romance-crackles with mounting tension. Only the gratuitous final twist, which demonstrates mainly that the author's capable of a final twist, spoils the workmanlike geometry. Agent: Sandra Bond/Bond Literary Agency

Kirkus Reviews