Librarian note: This author also goes by the pen name E.J. Copperman Jeff Cohen has worked in news since 2001, most recently as the city reporter for the Hartford Courant. He lives in Middletown, CT, with his wife, two daughters, and their cats. Jeff Cohen is the nom de plume for Jeffrey Cohen, writer of intentionally funny murder mysteries in the Double Feature and Aaron Tucker series. As E.J. Copperman he writes the Haunted Guesthouse mystery series, and now collaborates with himself on the Samuel Hoenig Asperger’s Mystery series. He’s been writing for a (nominal) living since graduating from Rutgers College during the Paleozoic Era, and has had articles published in The New York Times (which included lawn care tips from the head groundskeeper at Yankee Stadium, back when it really was Yankee Stadium), USA Weekend, TV Guide, Premiere, Writer’s Digest, American Baby, Hollywood Scriptwriter and many others. When the idea for one of his countless unproduced screenplays wouldn’t cooperate and become a script, Jeff wrote it as a novel called For Whom the Minivan Rolls, and the book was published by Bancroft Press in 2002. It was followed in the Aaron Tucker series by A Farewell to Legs and As Dog Is My Witness. Aaron returned in a 2011 short story, The Gun Also Rises, in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. The story won the Barry Award (at the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame!) for best short story of 2012. The Double Feature Mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime began with Some Like It Hot-Buttered, which introduced Elliot Freed and his all-comedy movie theater, Comedy Tonight. It was followed by It Happened One Knife and A Night at the Operation. Under the name E.J. Copperman, Jeff writes the Haunted Guesthouse Mystery series, which began with Night of the Living Deed and continues with An Uninvited Ghost, Old Haunts, and Chance of a Ghost. The series will continue in December with Inspector Specter. In his copious spare time, Jeff is an unaccomplished amateur guitar player, a fan of Major League Baseball, a couch potato and a teacher of screenwriting at Drexel University in Philadelphia. He’s also available for weddings and bar mitzvahs, but don’t expect an expensive gift. Visit Jeff on Facebook and Twitter, and read him at Hey, There’s A Dead Guy In The Living Room, the most comprehensive blog on mystery writing. Besides Jeff Cohen (Monday’s blogger), you’ll see perspectives from literary agent Josh Getzler on Tuesdays, publisher Lynne Patrick on Wednesdays, editor Terri Bischoff on Thursdays, publicist Erin Mitchell on Fridays, bookseller Marilyn Thiele on Saturdays and librarian Jessy Randall on Sundays. Check in every day for something new on mysteries, books and publishing!

Librarian note: E.J. Copperman is the pen name for author Jeff Cohen E.J. Copperman is a mysterious figure, or has a mysterious figure, or writes figuratively in mysteries. In any event, a New Jersey native, E.J. has written for such publications as The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, American Baby and USA Weekend. Night of the Living Deed is the first E.J. Copperman novel. It will be followed in 2011 by An Uninvited Ghost, the second in the Haunted Guesthouse mystery series. E.J., having worked as a newspaper reporter, teacher, magazine editor, and screenwriter, writes stories that combine humor and mystery with just the right amount of spooky supernatural happenings and a large doses of Jersey attitude. Sound like we’re being evasive? Well, the fact is that E.J. Copperman is the pseudonym of a well-known mystery novelist, now embarking on a new type of story that includes some elements of the supernatural as well as a fair number of laughs. And the Copperman novels will have a different attitude, a different setting and completely different characters than anything that has come before, so E.J. really is a new author.