Candy from Strangers

William P. Arney of San Francisco's Noir City Film Festival reads "It Was the Meat," the first chapter of Mark Coggins' novel Candy from Strangers, in which jazz bass-playing private eye August Riordan's gig at the venerable House of Shields bar doesn't go exactly as planned. (Running time: 18:36)

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Every little girl knows you can't take candy from strangers. It's the big girls who have a problem with the rule. Big girls with webcams and screen names and Amazon wishlists. Of Candy from Strangers, award-winning writer and former private investigator Joe Gores has said, "Coggins recreates the private eye novel from scratch, breathing new life into it, standing every cliché of the genre on its ear. In turn fall-down funny, then dark and brooding, the novel ends up being a sly examination of all that's wrong -- and right -- with today's youth-driven society ... it's a hell of a read."

The first chapter, "It WAS the Meat" was read by William P. Arney, the voice of the Noir City Film Festival, which runs January 26 - February 4, 2006 at the Castro Theater in San Francisco.

Music for this podcast was performed by the Kurt Ribak Trio.

About the Author:

Mark Coggins: Mark Coggins' novels have been nominated for three mystery book awards and selected for a number of respected "best of the year" lists, including those put together by the San Francisco Chronicle, the Detroit Free Press and mystery maven Otto Penzler. CNBC has said of his work, "A truer picture of Silicon Valley can't be found," and Salon.com, "Gives us Northern California in the 21st century, as noir as it ever was."