Fairhaven

Retired cop Jake Mosby wants a quiet, simple life selling old books in an inherited bookstore, but serial killer Charlie Fairhaven is running around Skagit County in the Pacific Northwest. There's a grandson no one wants, an old flame rekindled and endless complications. Ken Coffman is the master of unique characterizations and Fairhaven delivers a rich reading experience.

The afternoon sun broiled the beach. The olive-drab Skagit River, on the last lazy stage of its long journey from the Canadian Cascades, roiled and burbled. A little Mexican girl, dressed only in a sagging swimsuit bottom and dried mud, ran in tight circles, stirring up a cloud of choking dust. Jake Mosby unbuttoned the bib of his patched and stained Carhartt denim overalls to expose his chest’s thatch of gray hair; otherwise, he did not acknowledge the heat. He raised his fifth of Early Times bourbon in salute to a bald eagle lurking in a tree across the river. The eagle had been staring at Jake for an hour.

Ken Coffman was born in Medford, Oregon in 1953. He's been a berry picker, cat food factory worker, dish washer, Air Force Sergeant, rock-n-roll bass player, concert promoter, author, publisher, electrical engineer and engineering manager. In tribute to a life-long love of the written word, he's written nine novels and a technical book. The latest novel is called Fairhaven and it will be released on October 4, 2011. He has two grown children and lives in Washington State with his wife (the futile voice of reason).