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August Riordan #4
Runoff
"How much does it cost to fix an election?"
August Riordan—private investigator, jazz bass player, smart ass with a foolish heart—is going to find out. He’s been hired by Leonora Lee, the all-powerful "Dragon Lady" of San Francisco’s Chinatown, to investigate the results of the city's recent mayoral election. It seems the Dragon Lady’s candidate failed to even carry the Chinese precincts, and she’s convinced that someone must have rigged the outcome by hacking the city’s newly installed touch-screen voting machines.
A runoff between the two remaining candidates is days away, but it takes Riordan mere hours to find the Director of Elections dead in his office. A visit to the offices of Columbia Voting Systems—the suppliers of the city’s touch-screen machines—results in another corpse. A wide range of political interests share a stake in the election, so Riordan’s got plenty of suspects.
But when the Dragon Lady’s beautiful daughter is attacked after giving Riordan a goodnight kiss, it starts to get personal. Soon, Riordan is in a race not only against the runoff deadline, but against powerful political movers and shakers, Chinatown gang members, and crazed anarchists, with only his techno-savvy, cross-dressing friend Chris to help.
Apparently, the cost of fixing an election runs to as many lives as it does dollars, and if Riordan isn't careful, the price for un-fixing it may be more than he can afford ...
August Riordan—private investigator, jazz bass player, smart ass with a foolish heart—is going to find out. He’s been hired by Leonora Lee, the all-powerful "Dragon Lady" of San Francisco’s Chinatown, to investigate the results of the city's recent mayoral election. It seems the Dragon Lady’s candidate failed to even carry the Chinese precincts, and she’s convinced that someone must have rigged the outcome by hacking the city’s newly installed touch-screen voting machines.
A runoff between the two remaining candidates is days away, but it takes Riordan mere hours to find the Director of Elections dead in his office. A visit to the offices of Columbia Voting Systems—the suppliers of the city’s touch-screen machines—results in another corpse. A wide range of political interests share a stake in the election, so Riordan’s got plenty of suspects.
But when the Dragon Lady’s beautiful daughter is attacked after giving Riordan a goodnight kiss, it starts to get personal. Soon, Riordan is in a race not only against the runoff deadline, but against powerful political movers and shakers, Chinatown gang members, and crazed anarchists, with only his techno-savvy, cross-dressing friend Chris to help.
Apparently, the cost of fixing an election runs to as many lives as it does dollars, and if Riordan isn't careful, the price for un-fixing it may be more than he can afford ...
- GenresFiction
302 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2007
18 people want to read
About the author
Mark Coggins
17 books20 followersMark Coggins’ work has been nominated for the Shamus and the Barry crime fiction awards and selected for best of the year lists compiled by the San Francisco Chronicle, the Detroit Free Press and Amazon.com, among others. His novels Runoff and The Big Wake-Up won the Next Generation Indie Book Award and the Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY) respectively, both in the crime fiction category.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 20, 2014
Mark Coggins' "Runoff", the fourth book in the August Riordan series, is this author's first book for me. August is a private investigator in San Francisco as well as a bass player in a jazz band. In an additional quirk (it seems the more quirks a P.I. has the better), Mr. Riordan uses a cross-dressing sidekick in his crime-solving endeavors.
Leonora Lee, a powerful "overlady" of the San Francisco Chinese community hires August to investigate irregularities in recent city mayoral elections, related to software that handles the touch-screen voting machines. Quickly, the voting fraud case becomes a double murder case and Mr. Riordan and those close to him are in grave danger.
The plot is often implausible but the bits about San Francisco local politics (Green Party, fight against gentrification, the general dirt of politics, etc.) are somewhat interesting. Unfortunately, the author is not able to convey the San Francisco atmosphere. Even though he constantly throws at the reader the names of Chinatown streets, bars, and buildings, it is not enough to evoke the sense of the place, which is disappointing because, to me, San Francisco is the most interesting city in the U.S.
The passage about a battle between a backhoe and a fire hydrant is pretty funny. The writing is competent, if overly chatty. Some professional reviewers compare Mr. Coggins' novels to works of Chandler, which is totally ridiculous. Several Chandler's books are literature while "Runoff" is just a pleasant and fast read.
Two and a half stars.
Leonora Lee, a powerful "overlady" of the San Francisco Chinese community hires August to investigate irregularities in recent city mayoral elections, related to software that handles the touch-screen voting machines. Quickly, the voting fraud case becomes a double murder case and Mr. Riordan and those close to him are in grave danger.
The plot is often implausible but the bits about San Francisco local politics (Green Party, fight against gentrification, the general dirt of politics, etc.) are somewhat interesting. Unfortunately, the author is not able to convey the San Francisco atmosphere. Even though he constantly throws at the reader the names of Chinatown streets, bars, and buildings, it is not enough to evoke the sense of the place, which is disappointing because, to me, San Francisco is the most interesting city in the U.S.
The passage about a battle between a backhoe and a fire hydrant is pretty funny. The writing is competent, if overly chatty. Some professional reviewers compare Mr. Coggins' novels to works of Chandler, which is totally ridiculous. Several Chandler's books are literature while "Runoff" is just a pleasant and fast read.
Two and a half stars.
April 16, 2011
If you love San Francisco you’ll love August Riordan, PI, jazz bass player and wisecracker. He clearly knows his way around the highways, byways and alleyways of the Bay Area and is willing to take you along for the ride. If you come to town you might want to get out a map (or app) and following along as August investigates a possible rigged election.
Coggins lively and accurate descriptions lead you through the gate to Chinatown and to the basement of City hall with a detour along the Barbary Coast. He complements these with evocative black and white pictures next to clever chapter titles such as “The Midnight Ride of John Deere,” Election Fraud for Dummies,” and “A Burrito for Your Thoughts.”
For this adventure the intrepid PI passes himself off as a reporter for the Chinese Free Press (his articles are translated) and his posse includes an ex-girlfriend secretary, and a singing drag queen hacker. The tongue-in-cheek humor in no way interferes with the serious and fast-paced plot developments. He even throws in a little local history.
The local political references are enough to make any Bay Area resident smile and the issues of touch screen voting machines, the conflict between real estate, Green and homeless factions all ring true. Coggins clearly loves his characters and his hometown, which makes this book a treat.
Coggins lively and accurate descriptions lead you through the gate to Chinatown and to the basement of City hall with a detour along the Barbary Coast. He complements these with evocative black and white pictures next to clever chapter titles such as “The Midnight Ride of John Deere,” Election Fraud for Dummies,” and “A Burrito for Your Thoughts.”
For this adventure the intrepid PI passes himself off as a reporter for the Chinese Free Press (his articles are translated) and his posse includes an ex-girlfriend secretary, and a singing drag queen hacker. The tongue-in-cheek humor in no way interferes with the serious and fast-paced plot developments. He even throws in a little local history.
The local political references are enough to make any Bay Area resident smile and the issues of touch screen voting machines, the conflict between real estate, Green and homeless factions all ring true. Coggins clearly loves his characters and his hometown, which makes this book a treat.
October 9, 2016
Very entertaining book written in 2007 about an election in San Francisco. Could have been written today. Mark uses humor to offset the violence. Plus he makes each of his books special by inserting his photographs of the Cty and places he mentions in the book.
May 3, 2012
Quick, funny, set-in-San-Francisco mystery. The snappy comeback comes easily to August Riordan. So does pulling out a gun or beating a punk to a pulp. It's well done, but too carelessly violent and too glib for my taste. Maybe I like my banter with more self-deprecation, like in the Bernie Rhodenbarr or Dortmunder novels.
The potential case of vote fraud that starts the plot is really interesting (and galling because that's what I'm writing about in my NaNoWriMo novel from last November!) and done reasonably well. Though I like mine better.
The author is clearly local, so the small geographical mistakes (e.g., a reference to the intersection of Larkin and Van Ness—the streets are parallel) are hard to explain. And tearing down the National Guard Armory is artistic license, but a shame: the fact that it's now being used partly as a porn studio seems to me to be something he could use…
The potential case of vote fraud that starts the plot is really interesting (and galling because that's what I'm writing about in my NaNoWriMo novel from last November!) and done reasonably well. Though I like mine better.
The author is clearly local, so the small geographical mistakes (e.g., a reference to the intersection of Larkin and Van Ness—the streets are parallel) are hard to explain. And tearing down the National Guard Armory is artistic license, but a shame: the fact that it's now being used partly as a porn studio seems to me to be something he could use…
June 3, 2011
Another great entry in the annals of August Riordan. A great read, but this really should have been a five star book. It comes close, but the plot is never really tied together. It just bounces around until a sudden ending, and then a quick dénouement which explains the real story behind everything that was not really brought out before. The ending just ... happens, and I found it rather disappointing. But the first 80% is good enough to keep this a high rating.
July 14, 2010
Really enjoyable as much of this takes place in chinatown and north beach! Great and funny (and accurate) take on chinatown politics,right down to gangster "squid boy" and a supervisor running a small shop in chinatown.
April 2, 2011
Fast-paced modern noir story set in San Francisco. I really liked the snappy, sarcastic voice and thumbnail descriptions.
July 30, 2011
Fun Bay Area detective noir
December 9, 2012
First rate! This is a p. i. series which provides adventure, great characters and a great sense of humor. And I love his feel for San Francisco.
February 21, 2015
Best of the series so far.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews