My days are usually pretty humdrum. Certainly, since my wife ran off with a professional golfer and took our daughter with her. Amanda and I fell in love in college, and I brought her back to my hometown of Brunswick, Maine. We got married. Had a little girl. But something was missing.

Amanda was not happy with my chosen profession, private detective. She claimed that a person couldn’t make a living in small town Maine in such an occupation. It seems that she was right, but luckily, my crazy Aunt Zelda died and left me an inheritance, one that allowed me to open a mystery bookstore to complement my income. I named it after my dog. The Coffee Dog.

My friends would say that I am a mass of contradictions. It is true that I am a private detective and a bookstore owner, meaning I occasionally carry a gun but like to read. I support the environment and I eat red mean and played football. I sometimes forget to put the top up on my convertible when there is frost in the air. The result is my hair freezes.

The most important thing in the world to me is my daughter. I am not above playing Barbies or dressing up as a princess if that is what she wants. Being a good father supersedes anything else in my life. I am not sure if I still love my wife but know that I miss my daughter more than anything.

My days consist of selling books where the protagonists are engaged in high stakes play—saving the world, running down murderers, and uncovering corruption. The reality of my personal private detective firm is taking pictures of cheating spouses and revealing false workman compensation claims.

That is, until recently, when the Widow Dumphy hired me to track down who had killed her husband, the head of security at the local nuclear power plant. It seems that the Chief of Police had some involvement, radical environmental groups seem to be in play, and even the governor of the state might have a stake in this recent case I’ve been hired to investigate.

It is important to mention that I have a supporting cast of friends that back my every play. The huge bear of a cop, Bart, the hippie lawyer, Jimmy 4 by Four, the immigrants Richam and Jewell, the college student Peppermint Patti, and my sole employee and desire, Chabal.

My daughter returned but was almost immediately threatened by a strange looking man who calls himself Shakespeare. The man punched Jewell, pistol whipped me, and injured the Coffee Dog. Things have grown far more serious in my life.

The further into the case I dig, the worse things get. My friends and family have become endangered. If I don’t make it through to the end, I’d like to confess.

It is my fault that the girl is dead.

Mainely Power is the first book in the NEW ” Goff Langdon Mainely” traditional mystery series, released September 2020. Mainely Fear, the second book, released December 4, 2020.

Was Harold Dumphy killed to cover up something at the nuclear power plant where he was the head of security?
This is what Harold’s widow asks Goff Langdon, private detective, to find out. Langdon is a laid back, slacker detective, happy with his work, friends, and way of life in the town of Brunswick, Maine. To compliment his income in small town Maine’s scarce private detective market, Langdon also owns and operates a mystery bookstore named after his trusted companion, Coffee Dog.

Does Langdon stand a chance against corrupt cops, crooked politicians, greedy millionaires, radical environmentalists, and a deadly assassin named Shakespeare?
With the help of Bart, the bear of a cop; Jimmy 4 by Four, the hippie lawyer; the immigrants Jewell and Richam; and his true desire and employee, Chabal—Langdon sets out to do just that. And then he is framed for not one, but two murders, and events become very complicated.

Follow Langdon and his band of friends as they attempt to untangle the web of intrigue and return Brunswick to “the way life should be.”

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Meet the author
Over the years, Cost has owned a video store, a mystery bookstore, and a gym. He has also taught history and coached just about every sport imaginable.

During those years, since age eight actually, the true passion has been writing. I Am Cuba: Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution (Encircle Publications, March, 2020) was his first traditionally published novel.

Mainely Power is the first of the Mainely Mystery trilogy featuring private detective Goff Langdon. This will be followed by Mainely Fear (released in December, 2020), and Mainely Money (to be released in March, 2021).

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.