Mystery author Mark Coggins to speak in Menlo Park on October 21

On Wednesday, October 21, the Menlo Park Library Mystery Readers Group will welcome author Mark Coggins for a book talk and signing.

Coggins was born in New Mexico and moved to the Bay Area to attend Stanford University, where he earned two degrees and a Phi Beta Kappa Key. While at Stanford, he studied creative writing with Tobias Wolff and Ron Hansen and wrote the first story featuring his private investigator character August Riordan in a class taught by Hansen.

While the character is portrayed as a technophobe, author Coggins has worked for a number of Silicon Valley computer and venture capital firms, including Netscape Communications and Hewlett Packard.

Books by Mark Coggins have been nominated for the Shamus and the Barry crime fiction awards, and have been selected for best of the year lists compiled by the San Francisco Chronicle, the Detroit Free Press and Amazon.com, among others.

At the Menlo Park Library event, Coggins will be reading from No Hard Feelings, his latest book featuring August Riordan. The free event will take place Wednesday, October 21 at 7:15 pm at the Menlo Park Library, located at 800 Alma Street.