It’s another case of the shoemaker’s children going barefoot. Over the last few years, through my Mill Lake Books imprint, I have published over 30 books. But rarely any of my own. I have continued to write, of course. Writers write because they can’t not write. If they don’t write, they will explode. Which would be messy. But publishing is something else entirely. That is why, when one of my own books finally makes it into print, it is a noteworthy event. A rare gem. A long-anticipated achievement. A cause for celebration. A pleasant surprise. To me as well as others.

Therefore, I am more than pleased to announce the publication of Too Many Deaths.

I have long been an advocate of the idea that when you write something—whether it is a poem, an editorial, or a story—you should start at the beginning, and, when you get to the end, you should stop. That is, every piece of writing has its own integral coherence. The content should determine the length, not the other way around. The story itself should determine if it is 50 words, 500 words, 5,000 words, 50,000 words, or 500,000 words.

When I started writing “Too Many Deaths,” I had a pretty clear idea of where the story was going. Just not how long it would take to get there. When I was finished, I discovered it was about 100 pages—too long for a short story but too short for a novel. So, I put with it two other stories I had written which were too long to be short stories and too short to be novels: “The Honeymoon” and “Anniversary Cruise.” And together they made a book.

Here is a brief synopsis:

Looking over the scene of the grisly vehicle accident, Sergeant Troy Weston was certain of one thing—there had been too many deaths…

Walter and Miranda were enjoying their honeymoon—until circumstances forced them to undertake a perilous journey through the mountains on horseback…

John and Ruby Smyth were enjoying a cruise to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary—until some of their fellow passengers began to go missing…

This book offers three separate but loosely connected stories. It reunites diminutive Christian magazine editor John Smyth (the under-sung hero of four previous mystery novels) and Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant Troy Wesson. The two (Smyth and Wesson) had collaborated to solve murders in an earlier Coggins novel, Desolation Highway. This is scarcely surprising since their namesake, Smith and Wesson, has been involved in many murders over the years.

Too Many Deaths is distributed through Ingram and is available in bookstores and through online retailers such as Books A Million, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Amazon Canada.