Psi Phi's Star Trek Books Database

The Case of the Colonist's Corpse: A Sam Cogley Mystery

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Next: Captain's Peril
Star Trek
Mass-Market Paperback / January, 2004
0-7434-6497-4

Written by Tony Isabella and Bob Ingersoll

Description:

When Captain Kirk faced court-martial, he chose the best lawyer in the Federation--Samuel T. Cogley, a cranky old man who prefers books to padds and people to computers.

Now, once again, it's SAM COGLEY FOR THE DEFENSE!

The planet Aneher IV sits in the middle of the Neutral Zone, and neither the Klingon Empire nor the Federation can claim it. Under the terms of the Organian Peace Treaty, any such contested colony world will go to the party--Federation or Klingon--which shows it can best develop the planet.

At first the two colonies live in peace, but it's a fragile peace, one shattered when Administrator Daniel Latham, the head of the Federation colony, is found murdered, and Commander Mak'tor, the head of the Klingon colony, is found crouched over Latham's body, a discharged phaser still hot in his hand.

When Lieutenant Areel Shaw of Starfleet is assigned to prosecute Mak'tor, Sam Cogley, on Captain Kirk's recommendation, volunteers to defend the accused Klingon. But when Cogley's own investigation provides the prosecution with its key piece of evidence and his courtroom tactics unexpectedly backfire, can even the galaxy's most brilliant defense attorney win the day in...

The Case of the Colonist's Corpse

Notes

Re: the red dye on the edge of the pages: "Back in the day, it was done for two reasons, one being that the cheap, high-acid-content paper paperbacks were printed on tended to crumbled at the edges, and the dye masked that, and the second because books were sold in spinner racks and colorful edges were on view and caught the customers' eye.

"There is a specific machine that dyes the edges of the paper--we had to pay extra to get the printer to put it back together, since no one has dyed paper edges on a book in seven years.

"We figured that in for a penny, in for a pound--if you're going to make a book look like a 60s-era Perry Mason novel, you should do it -right-. The only concession we made to mondern sensibility is that if we'd used the microscopic type they used in the 60s, the book would be only about 200 pages long and you'd all but need a magnifying glass to read it.

"Also, I think putting the words 'A SAMUEL COGLEY MYSTERY' on the front cover will make it pretty clear to all readers exactly what the book is about. :)" -- John Ordover, editor