Goff Langdon sits down for a question-and-answer session with dru’s book musings so that we, the readers, can get to know him better. Are you ready? Here’s Goff!

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What is your full name?
Goff Langdon

How old are you?
Fifty-three

What is your profession?
I am a mystery bookshop owner and a private investigator.

Do you have a significant other?
I am married to a former employee, current partner, and love of my life.

What is her name and profession?
Chabal Daniels Langdon was my first employee at the Coffee Dog Bookstore, my current partner, associate, and the love of my life.

Do you have any children?
I have one daughter, Missouri Langdon, who is now an adult living in Brooklyn. I also am a stepfather to Chabal’s three grown children.

Do you have any siblings?
I have younger twin brothers who I helped raise, Lord and Nick Langdon.

Are your parents nearby?
My father left us when I was very young and my mother died later on in life.

Who is your best friend?
Chabal, my wife, of course is my best friend. But I also have a tight-knit group of others who include the hipster lawyer, Jimmy 4 by Four, the gruff cop, Bart, the former alcoholic employee, Jonathan Starling, and the immigrants, Richam and Jewell.

Do you have any pets?
The original Coffee Dog has been succeeded by my newest faithful companion, dog, spelled with a small d. He is a humble fellow, if with a voracious appetite.

What town do you live in?
Brunswick, Maine.

Do you live in a small town or a big city?
Brunswick is a coastal town of about 20,000 people. It has an old-style downtown of shops, restaurants, and businesses and the only true Maine Street in the state.

What type of dwelling do you own or rent?
Chabal and I own a colonial in a neighborhood that backs up to the Town Commons, a great place for dog and us to run and play.

What is your favorite spot in your home?
I am most comfortable in my own bookshop that I have carefully crafted to hold many of my best friends, from the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, to Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen, Bruce Robert Coffin, BJ Magnani, and S. Lee Manning.

What is your favorite meal and dessert?
The meal would be a toss-up between English muffin pizza and tacos. The dessert would be tiramisu.

Do you have any hobbies?
I read, golf, play basketball, and go on adventures with my wife and dog.

What is your favorite vacation spot?
It is hard to get away from the bookshop, so vacationing is limited. We like the Carolina’s in the winter as it is not too hot, really just perfect for us Mainers.

What is your idea of a really fun time?
What I enjoy most is hosting a small BBQ in my backyard for my close friends. We eat, drink, and insult each other.

If you were to write a memoir, what would you call it?
The Way Life Should Be

Amateur or professional sleuth and whom do you work with?
Technically, I am a certified, and thus, professional PI. I often involve my friend group in my cases as they are cops, lawyers, and local businesspeople.

What is a typical day in your life like in general and when you are on a case?
A typical day for me starts with a walk with dog in the woods, a workout at the gym, and a day at the bookshop where I know most of my customers by name. I work with my wife while jazz music wafts around us. If Jonathan is in by noon, Chabal and I sneak out to grab some lunch. At the end of the day, we go home for dinner, and will read or watch a Netflix series.

There is no such thing as a normal day when I’m on a case. Often, they involve insurance fraud of some sort or other mundane tasks such as that, but I’ve also been hired to investigate a suspicious death of the head of security at a nuclear power plant, discover why a basketball prodigy became a criminal, search for who was blackmailing a U.S. Senator, and most recently, find a boy who’s been taken as part of a power play against the governor of Maine.

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Mainely Angst, A Goff Langdon Mainely Mystery #4
Genre: Private Investigator
Release: January 2022
Purchase Link

Award winning author Matt Cost brings us the fourth book in the Mainely Mystery series in which a boy is abducted and threatened with execution if the governor of Maine doesn’t ease business restrictions and masking requirements due to the pandemic.

Langdon is muddling his way through the pandemic like everybody else. Business restrictions have dealt a blow to his mystery bookstore, and nobody leaves the house anymore to get into trouble and create a need for a PI. At the same time, his marriage is stronger than ever, and he’s had a chance to catch up on things around the house.

Then it all changes. The bookstore opens back up, and he gets hired to find a missing woman, find proof of sexual harassment against another local business owner, and track down a kidnapped boy before he is executed by a madman in a desperate bid to force the state to ease masking restrictions.

“Somebody stole my wife,” the man said.
Did Annika Morin leave her husband. . . or was she taken?

I was sexually harass’ by my boss and then fire’ when I refused his advances.” Raven’s dark eyes flashed a promise of anger and vengeance.

Local brew pub owner Rick Strong is accused of sexual harassment, which seems likely, but is he guilty of much more? Or is it entirely fabricated?

“Where is my boy?” Jill asked, her words anguished.

And then the boy is abducted, and the kidnapper attempts to hold the entire state hostage. If the governor refuses their demands, the kidnapper promises to execute the child on Halloween.

With the help of his wife, Chabal, and his friends Bart the bad-tempered cop, 4 by Four the playboy lawyer, Richam and Jewell, and Star, his bookstore employee, Langdon is in a race against time to find the missing wife, obtain proof against an unlikeable business owner, and track down a kidnapped boy before it is too late. . .

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About the author
Matt Cost is the highly acclaimed, award-winning author of the Mainely Mystery series. The first book, Mainely Power, was selected as the Maine Humanities Council Read ME fiction book of 2020. This was followed by Mainely Fear and Mainely Money. Mainely Angst is the fourth book of the series.

I Am Cuba: Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution was his first traditionally published novel. He had another historical released in August of 2021, Love in a Time of Hate. Wolfe Trap was the first in the Clay Wolfe Port Essex Trap series. Mind Trap was the second, published in October of 2021, and will be followed by Mouse Trap in April of 2022.

Cost was a history major at Trinity College. He owned a mystery bookstore, a video store, and a gym, before serving a ten-year sentence as a junior high school teacher. In 2014 he was released and began writing. And that’s what he does. He writes histories and mysteries.

Cost now lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife, Harper. There are four grown children: Brittany, Pearson, Miranda, and Ryan. A chocolate Lab and a basset hound round out the mix. He now spends his days at the computer, writing.

All comments are welcomed.