Murder in Concrete by Arthur Coburn

Murder in Concrete

by Arthur Coburn

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Blurb:

Nineteen-year-old Charlie comes home to find her mother murdered. Police drag her father’s body from the Skagit River. With help from a therapist, Charlie makes it to college where she sees her “dead” father acting in a movie and hurries to Hollywood, to find him.

Excerpt:

Chapter 1

I was strapping my stuffed cougar onto my bike

when Dad rushed from the house and said, “Charlie,

you can’t take that animal to school.”

I grinned. “He’s harmless. Just a way to give the

uptight teachers a reason to remember us.”

“Not happening.”

“He attacked a hiker last year. Would have killed

someone sooner or later. It was a public service to take

him down.”

“You’d upset the school administration, get

arrested, and give your mother conniptions.”

Crusty eyes, day old beard, hints of bourbon and

coffee on his breath—he’d had a tense morning. My

parents split the days. Mom up until midnight, doing

the books. Dad out of bed at dawn and off to measure,

saw, and wrestle thousand-pound logs into place.

I said, “Why are you such a grump?”

He pulled the cougar from my bike. “Mind’s on

business. Put yours on finding a summer job before

they’re all taken.”

At the sound of a distant explosion, Dad stared

down the road a long moment. I looked but didn’t see

or hear anything special.

He wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “You’re

still my favorite daughter.”

“Only daughter. That joke hasn’t gotten funnier

since second grade.”

Author Bio:

Arthur Coburn grew up in New Jersey, went to Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, passed the Washington bar, exam spent two years in the U.S. Infantry as a first Lieutenant, and survived a three-year law career, before bailing out and landing a job for King Screen Productions, a filmmaking Division of the KING Broadcasting Company in Seattle. His first assignment there was to make a chart of all the proposals for peace in Vietnam.  He progressed to directing commercials, industrials and documentaries; later to writing educational film scripts for the same company.  When the division closed, he worked as a freelance writer – doing environmental impact statements, and as a freelance still photographer.

After he left the law, Arthur wrote dramatic educational film scripts, and won a local Emmy for a documentary, then moved to Hollywood, where he edited more than two dozen films, including Spiderman,  A Simple Plan and The Cooler. He is a member of Sisters in Crime and MWA; and he goes to writing conferences. He has taken a screen writing class John Truby, studied with poet and novelist Jim Krusoe at Santa Monica College.  He took a class with author Kris Neri in mystery writing, and two courses with novelist and short story writer Tod Goldberg at UCLA. He has written five novels: Murder in Concrete (to be published in 2024) Murder in Madrona (currently in revision); and several awaiting care and review: MaBoys Will Be Boys, Mostly (general fiction),  Rough Cut (a thriller). He won the Novel Prize at the Southern California Writer’s Conference in June 2005 for Rough Cut.  His short stories, Some CreatureI Care About, and Backswing, appeared in  Sisters in Crime Anthologies: LAmarked for Murder and Ladies Night. 

Arthur is a member of the Motion Picture Academy and the Foreign Film Committe for which he watches dozens of domestic films and upward of fifty movies from all over the world in order to vote for best foreign film.

 He has traveled and worked in Morroco, Poland, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Canada and France, speaks serviceable French and Italian and watches the French and Italian channels on cable. He learned enough Polish to order tomato soup without rice and enough Swahili to order hot water for a shower when he was on a shoot in a desert encampment in Kenya. Arthur skis, road bikes, and has a pilots’ license. Plays a little classical guitar and can improvise on the piano and Hammond organ. He has a Hammond B2 and a Leslie speaker at home.

He worked as a film editor in Hollywood on more than two dozen features.

His current novel, Murder in Concrete, was picked up by The Wild Rose Press largely due to the sympathetic eye and efforts of his fabulous editor, Dianne Rich of TWRP. She saw the novel’s value from the start and guided him past various hurdles to bring it home. He is currently revising another novel and hoping to publish it in 2024.