The Matt Cobb Mysteries Series

Matt Cobb, troubleshooter extraordinaire, must track a killer when a talk-show host goes off the air permanently In television production, “fringe time” refers to the period after the late-night news before the morning shows begin—the time when anything could happen. For Matt Cobb, a VP charged with getting “The Network” out of jams, fringe time is especially fraught, because it’s a time when one of his charges is seriously at risk.          Cobb has had his hands full with Richard Bentyne, a volatile wee-hours talk-show host with more than one lover and many deserved enemies. And when Bentyne’s dinner is laced with arsenic, there’s no shortage of leads to investigate, and Cobb must do it quickly, with as little exposure to the network as possible. But while a betrayed girlfriends, jealous colleagues, or crazed fans might have the motive for murder, Cobb’s gut instinct tells him that the answer lies somewhere on the fringe.

At a snowed-in retreat, a corporate takeover turns deadly A remote mansion, a blizzard, and lack of phone service: It’s an opportunity a killer can’t pass up. Matt Cobb, the in-house troubleshooter for a television conglomerate, is summoned to an executive meeting at the Adirondack home of billionaire G. B. Dost. Dost plans to acquire the TV network, and the shareholders are anxious about the rich man’s intentions. One of the bigwigs might even prefer murder to a takeover.  Sure enough, the morning before negotiations would start, Dost is discovered dead outside his lodge—surrounded by forty feet of smooth, unbroken snow—and Cobb is faced with the task of interrogating guests. And matters are only complicated by Dost’s psychic wife, his off-kilter son, and a haunting message somehow relayed on a television found to be unplugged.

An electrifying puzzle, corporate sleuth Matt Cobb is set up in a TV-world murder This Edgar Award–winning debut novel introduces Matt Cobb, vice president of special projects at a large television network—where “special projects” means anything sensitive, or even fatal, that the company wants to keep quiet. Cobb’s no stranger to following mysterious orders, so when he receives a telephone call asking him to visit a hotel room he obliges. The invitation, however, means a dead body, a sharp blow to the head, and suspicion from the police that he committed the crime. And while one of the detectives put on the case has known Cobb since he was a child, the other is convinced of his guilt. Can Cobb stay on point when the stakes are so high? Can he find the real killer and persuade the police of his innocence? And what do television ratings have to do with it all?

Matt Cobb deals with love and murder on the rink In the last installment of the popular Matt Cobb series, the TV network’s expert troubleshooter, faces a literal case of cold-blooded murder. At two in the morning, he stands in a Manhattan ice rink, over the grisly body of Dr. Paul Dinkover. The network was supposed to be taping a figure-skating special, and this discovery can’t be a coincidence. The victim is a psychologist, one so thoroughly disagreeable that any number of people could be considered suspects—including beautiful Wendy Ichimi, the show’s celebrity skater. But while Cobb’s men are mysteriously attacked, he can’t stop thinking about the way Dinkover died gripping an American flag, a symbol or clue he can’t unravel. And as the leads and tension mount, it will take all of Cobb’s strength to keep his cool and remain on his two feet.

Matt Cobb scrambles to save a celebrity event turned upside down by robbery and murder Matt Cobb may not be a detective by trade, but there are times when he sure feels like one. As the VP of special projects for a television conglomerate, Cobb is an expert at getting the network out of tricky situations. Now his company is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary with a weekend-long extravaganza, flying in dozens of celebrities for a prime-time party. And as the event approaches, egos flare, nerves fray, and someone sabotages the studio. First a reporter drowns in a TV star’s pool. Then an actress’s bowling ball—her lucky talisman—is stolen, and some important kinescopes disappear. As the body count climbs, Cobb finds himself asking if these strange events are connected, and if so, who is behind them?

Matt Cobb goes to bat for a friend accused of murder Matt Cobb, an executive who is tasked with smoothing over sensitive situations for a major television network, is used to looking disaster in the eye. But while traveling upstate to look into rising corruption in the sale of cable broadcasting licenses, and mixing with some old college friends, he doesn’t expect murder rears its ugly head.  Cobb’s former roommate, Dan Morris, is still pining over his ex-girlfriend Debbie Whitten, who’s about to marry another man. But on the night before her wedding, Debbie is killed with a crushing karate blow to her throat, and Dan is accused of murder. Cobb has to prove his friend’s innocence—no mean feat given that Morris was a martial arts expert and publicly vowed to put a stop to the marriage—and also that a shady DA has an agenda in locking him up. Meanwhile, the cable corruption issue won’t die down, and Cobb becomes the target of a goon dubbed “The Organic Hit Man,” who kills with whatever’s handy.

During a trip to England, a fog of mystery threatens Matt Cobb’s vacation—and his life Matt Cobb is ready to quit. His job as a special projects VP at a giant television network involves intense troubleshooting and an egotistical boss, and both have taken their toll. The network president has other ideas, though, and persuades him that all he needs is a long vacation. So Cobb takes off for London, with his dog and his lovely fiancée, Roxanne, by his side.  But work won’t release its grip so easily, and when Cobb visits an old friend at a network affiliate, he can’t resist a plea to help with their security team. And when he’s directed to ignore the time-honored rule against the delivery of mysterious envelopes, Cobb becomes not only a witness to a murder, but also the prime suspect.

In a spine-tingling mystery, death follows TV network sleuth Matt Cobb to Bermuda A cruise ship full of mystery writers may sound like a fantasy for some, but for Matt Cobb, whose job consists of untangling serious knots for a large television network, it’s anything but—especially when it results in a real-life murder to solve.  Cobb is snatched from his normal duties at the network and put on a boat to St. David, to act as minder for two winners of a radio contest. The winners happen to be attractive women, a small bonus, but Cobb can hardly enjoy his time with them before a macho writer takes an active dislike to him and a corpse appears. And when some kitchen knives go missing—along with quarreling writer Lee Schaeffer—and other killings and disappearances ensue, Cobb ends up looking to a visiting Mafia boss for clues. But to get to the truth, he will have to work his way through the theories of amateur sleuths and save his own neck.

Matt Cobb, troubleshooter extraordinaire, must track a killer when a talk-show host goes off the air permanently In television production, “fringe time” refers to the period after the late-night news before the morning shows begin—the time when anything could happen. For Matt Cobb, a VP charged with getting “The Network” out of jams, fringe time is especially fraught, because it’s a time when one of his charges is seriously at risk.          Cobb has had his hands full with Richard Bentyne, a volatile wee-hours talk-show host with more than one lover and many deserved enemies. And when Bentyne’s dinner is laced with arsenic, there’s no shortage of leads to investigate, and Cobb must do it quickly, with as little exposure to the network as possible. But while a betrayed girlfriends, jealous colleagues, or crazed fans might have the motive for murder, Cobb’s gut instinct tells him that the answer lies somewhere on the fringe.