The Immortal Game by Mark Coggins

When the world's most innovative computer chess software is stolen, wisecracking, jazz bass-playing PI August Riordan is hired to find it.Sifting through a San Francisco peopled with bruising, ex-NFL henchmen, transvestite techno geeks, and alluring, drug-addicted dominatrices, Riordan has got his work cut out for him.But with a smart-ass attitude like Riordan's, nothing is easy ...A darkly comic sojourn through a town unrecognizable from the Tony Bennett song and the Rice-a-Roni ads, THE IMMORTAL GAME is a San Francisco Chronicle book of the year and a Shamus, Barry, and Independent Publisher (IPPY) award nominee.“Smart, stylish, sexy and amusingly insouciant. It's a true find, a well-written and sophisticated addition to the heralded San Francisco private-detective story…a panoramic tour de force.”—San Francisco Chronicle“Gritty…seamy…very, very funny. [Coggins] has given the form fresh life.”—National Public Radio“Here's a first novel that pays homage to Hammett, Chandler, and every wisecracking PI in the genre, and then some. It also introduces one of the most delightful characters to come along in some time: August Riordan, a jazz bass-playing PI who is cynical, irreverent, and a laugh a minute.”—Otto Penzler for Amazon.com“Coggins hauls us on a dark, hip journey into the grittier parts of San Francisco, with only an occasional appearance of the city we know from Rice-a-Roni ads…a superb new take on a classic mystery form.”—Detroit Free Press“August Riordan takes the reader on a wisecracking, action-packed ramble through San Francisco's kinky sex milieux, including S/M and bondage emporia.”—Jazz Fiction: A History and Comprehensive Reader's Guide“Coggins clearly recalls the old masters in his debut novel. Think of it as THE MALTESE FALCON played out at the end of the century. Short on the genre cliches that have become all too common today, Coggins' novel has all the power and wit that make a detective story into a great read.”—The Bookman’s Week