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The Fractal Murders (Pepper Keane Mysteries) | 
| Author: Mark Cohen
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
Buy Used: $2.24
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Avg. Customer Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 882827
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 0446614912
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780446614917
ASIN: 0446614912
Publication Date: July 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Ex-Library. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
When Jane Smyers, a math professor specializing in fractal geometry, decides to send an article for proofreading to other specialists around the country, she is shocked to learn that three of them have died under mysterious circumstances. That's where Pepper Keane comes in. An ex-Marine with an encyclopedic knowledge of rock and roll, he finds himself attracted to Professor Smyers and is determined to find out what he can. At first he can't find any evidence that the three dead specialists even knew each other. But Keane continues to dig, and with the help of his computer hacker best friend and exercise guru brother, the suspects multiply - and the most likely is an FBI agent who just happens to be Keane's worst enemy.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
 Great story, unique subject September 15, 2008
I love reading mysteries (essentially junk food for my mind) that increase my awareness of more esoteric subjects. I still know next to nothing about fractals, but at least I know they exist. And I had a great time reading the Fractal Murders while that happened.
Pepper Keane is a great character, a sort of Travis McGee of our time. Actually, a great deal about the Fractal Murders has very much a John D. MacDonald flavor to it. Keane is a protgonist who has rebelled against "the man" and lives by his own rules as an investigator. A woman brings him a case that is complex and full of intrigue. Happily, Mark Cohen is a little more light-handed with the sexism and the sex than MacDonald!.
The Fractal Murders has great background that I never found boring, Pepper Keane is a charming main character and his family and friends are also full of personality and fully envisioned. No one-dimensional characterizations. The mystery leads you most of the way and then has a twist I didn't see coming. I liked this book very much and would read more by this author. I hope there are more!
 A pretty good mystery July 8, 2008
Three fractal mathematician die and another one who was a close friend
of one of them thinks it isn't a coincidence. The FBI says that there
is no connection. So Pepper Keane gets the case...
No resemblance to any living fractal a mathematicians seems to exist,
and the premise of the conclusion of time transform doesn't seem likely,
but the novel is well researched. In some cases I think the explanations are better than some popularizations that I have read.
It turns out that there is an FBI connection to the gun that killed
one of the mathematicians in Washington state.
From there on the plot has some surprising twists!
I liked it and for a mystery it was well written.
The point seems to be that once Pepper was close,
the pile of files at his house would have been a target
more than himself. From Waco we know that the FBI can
have an agenda outside their legal one.
To think that mathematicians might be targets
because of an economic model is kind of 'romantic'
but not very realistic... a Levy Flight?
Smart January 25, 2008
"The Fractal Murders" offers a terrific premise and the delivery lives up to it, too. The sleuthing is dogged, hard work. It's smart and well organized--the kind of diligent, relentless focus that is probably the norm out there for actual detectives. The Colorado settings are well rendered. I thought a few key things happened a bit too conveniently: the jet ride to Boston, the handy night vision goggles, access via a friend to key commercial airline passenger manifests. I also could have done without all the restaurant and eating descriptions; they just don't add up to much. For a guy who spends a lot of time running and working out, there is very little physical action. Most of the work is mental. Readers looking for a good brain exercise will enjoy how Pepper Keane approaches his work and the end packs a nifty double twist.
Great math mystery that's not too technical September 20, 2007
University of Colorado math professor Jayne Smyers hires Pepper Keane, former Marine JAG turned PI, to investigate the deaths of three other math professors. The Feds have investigated and found no link between the deaths. Jayne is convinced there's a link. Pepper is skeptical at first but agrees to look into it.
There's plenty of bad blood between Pepper and FBI agent Polk who did some of the investigating. This history adds to Pepper's determination to investigate these deaths.
As Pepper digs deeper into the deaths, he begins to see some similar threads that continue to propel him forward. With romance in the air, Pepper worries that Jayne may be the next victim.
Can he decipher the pattern and unmask the killer before anyone else is killed? Can he protect Jayne as well?
I thoroughly enjoyed this refreshing mystery. Pepper is a fabulous character, even with his baggage. It is explained throughout the book, so we aren't left floundering. His interactions with Polk, Jayne, detectives where each mathematician was killed, his brother, his neighbors, and his best friend really help us to get to know him.
I found the math to be explained in plain English so that it was easy to understand. It also didn't detract from the investigation; it actually enhanced it. I am not a mathematician, but I really enjoyed this book. I hope he writes more in this series. I can't wait to read them. I highly recommend this book.
Chaos and comedy combine in a great story! August 25, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
The Fractal Murders is nothing if not unique! Here's a first novel based on a completely fascinating premise that presents interesting, realistic and superbly developed characters; that develops a heart-warming romantic relationship complete with all the bumps, bruises and detours of reality; that avoids prurient sex and violence as completely unnecessary to the advancement of a well-written novel; and does it all with well crafted narrative and descriptive writing as well as positively hilarious dialogue! The fixings are so good that a main dish plot becomes almost secondary but I can tell you that Cohen has done a fine job with that as well! What a treat for a debut novel!
Pepper Keane, a former JAG prosecutor, is hired by University of Colorado mathematics Jane Smyers to investigate the almost simultaneous deaths of three of her professional colleagues - two by murder and one by apparent suicide - people who seem to have had nothing more in common than front-running world class expertise in the rather arcane field of fractal geometry. Smyers's mathematical background convinces her that the probability of the three deaths being unrelated is vanishingly small and some long-standing bad blood between Keane and FBI Special Agent Polk, who conducted the now closed investigation, raises Keane's eyebrows and prompts him into letting himself become involved in re-opening the case.
Pepper Keane is a lovable, laughable character that Cohen has endowed with an anally obsessive nature and a serious overdose of existential angst that he indulges by attempting to plow through some of Heidegger's heaviest writings. Cohen obviously loves a good pun and I nearly fell off my chair laughing when he set up this positively outrageous example. Keane's brother, nicknamed "Two Toe" as a result of a war wound, muses aloud about where they are as he and Pepper drive out of Kansas. Suggesting that he had been waiting a long, long time to say it, Pepper responded "Two Toe, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore"! Ouch! Between you and me, I think it's much more likely that Cohen waited a long time to shoehorn that pre-conceived pun into a novel and I've got no doubt at all that he nicknamed his character Two Toe for the sole purpose of sticking that single line into the novel. It sure gets my unqualified approval! Cohen's sparkling wit shines throughout the novel with a veritable cornucopia of knee-slapping one liners.
As for the mathematics - Mandelbrot and Benoit sets, chaos, fractional dimensions, random walks, discussions of business applications such as fundamental versus technical analysis, weather prediction and crop markets - the basic concepts are presented in a lucid, simple and non-threatening fashion. And, frankly, since the mathematics aren't critical to the plot, the novel can be read and enjoyed even for those who haven't the remotest interest in such ideas!
Readers looking for a refreshingly different approach to a mystery hooked up to a healthy dose of humour should be well pleased with Cohen's first efforts. I'm certainly looking forward to more of his work.
Paul Weiss
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