Praise for The Not So Merry Adventures of Max Creed

"Readers will root for Creed, for he refuses to accept that there is one set of laws for the ordinary people and another set for the ultra-rich scions of industry. The battle is on and it’s good one - the pace and action in this book is intense. By the final pages, readers will be eagerly awaiting the next in the series.”~~Jule Selbo, author of the award-winning Dee Rommel Mystery series

"Drug cartels, Chinese gangsters, and sexploitation drive the action until its unexpected climax, which doesn’t pull punches, literally, and figuratively. Cost has a way of making believable action as if he’s tried out the hits before he writes about them. His writing is gritty and base, and delivers a tone appropriate to the underbelly of human nature."~~ BJ Magnani author of the Dr. Lily Robinson suspense thriller series.

"THE NOT SO MERRY ADVENTURES OF MAX CREED is a story of secrets and lies, power and control, betrayal and vengeance, human trafficking and missing persons. The premise is dark, dramatic and gritty; the characters are determined, desperate and dynamic."~~The Reading Cafe

"A fast-paced conspiracy thriller with a modern-day superhero twist! 💥 Max Creed forms his own version of the Justice League to take down the corrupt elite—and their latest target is Rupert Hastings. But will their plan work, or will power silence justice?"~~Nana's Book Reviews

Praise for Mouse Trap

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

"Clay Wolfe, the nattily-dressed, roguishly-charming, ex-Boston-homicide-cop-turned-PI, is unfurling - expanding his reach (both emotionally and professionally) into thornier, darker and more challenging arenas - a fascinating budding shift for this already top-notch PI crime series..... This motley team permeates the pages with their colorful banter - including Monty Python references and so many weak and bordering-on-lewd puns that this reader found herself playing along - encouraging us by their camaraderie to settle in again and visit with old friends (albeit of the heavily-armed, impossibly-courageous and Navy Seal military-trained variety)."~~Booklymatters

Praise for Mainely Angst

"Fans of Matt Cost's prior Goff Langdon's 'Mainely' mystery series will relish the appearance of another standalone story of intrigue, Mainely Angst.... These unexpected twists and thought-provoking considerations keep Mainely Angst centered not just on mysteries, but in community interactions, responses, and anxiety."~~Midwest Book Review, Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer

"With a great cast of characters and excellent writing, this is one series I would not miss; packed with doubt, excitement and a good helping of fun this is another worthy addition to the Mainely Mysteries. With no hesitation at all, this is a five star read!"~~Grace J. Reviewerlady

Praise for Mind Trap

 "Mind Trap's contrast between investigative motivations, cult processes, and the method by which an ordinary but psychologically damaged housewife turns killer makes for an absorbing read. It's not only filled with twists and turns that will delight murder mystery fans, but adds psychological insights that will attract readers who look for depth in their stories.... It's a top recommendation for prior fans, but stands nicely alone for newcomers. Mind Trap deserves a spot in any collection strong in murder mystery writing."~~D. Donovan—Midwest Book Review

"Matt Cost’s Mind Trap pits former homicide detective turned private investigator Clay Wolfe against a dangerous cult leader in the town of Port Essex, Maine. Wolfe and his band of amateur sleuths are the only things standing between Marduk, the embodiment of evil and self-proclaimed son of God, and the townsfolk. Mind Trap is a twisted and chilling tale of control and manipulation. The ultimate ‘what if’ on steroids."~~Bruce Robert Coffin, award-winning author of the Detective Byron Mysteries

Praise for Love in a Time of Hate

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

"Chillingly prescient, insightfully nuanced and disturbingly evocative, this historical epic, based in New Orleans, follows the turbulence that rocked the state of Louisiana in the years following the Confederate loss of the Civil War.... Against the backdrop of all this horror, Emmett meets and discovers his one true love, and we cheer as we breathe in the glimmer of hope silently taking shape between the pages."~~Booklymatters Terri Portelli

"Love in a Time of Hate's ability to juxtapose different forces, special interests, and perspectives against the backdrop of both endings and new beginnings will intrigue and delight historical fiction readers—especially those with a particular affection for Louisiana culture.... The characterization is well done, there is no shying away from the sometimes-brutal events that challenged both sides, and Matthew Langdon Cost takes the time to build a saga that is compelling and hard to put down as Emmett finds his way through a morass of social conflict and tries to do what is right for both himself and the greater good."~~D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

Praise for Wolfe Trap

"Set on the midcoast of Maine, WOLFE TRAP introduces us to an eccentric and Interesting cast of Maine characters in this first installment in the Port Essex Mystery series. This gripping plot moves with lightning speed until it’s explosive and thrilling conclusion. Here we have murder, drug-smuggling lobstermen, heavy drinking, art theft and budding romance. Despite our hero’s hard-drinking and prolific womanizing, Clay Wolfe is a sympathetic and likable character. Cost’s jam-packed plot should appeal to all lovers of private detective fiction. I eagerly look forward to next book in this series.~~Joseph Souza, acclaimed author of “The Perfect Daughter”

"Another heart-pounding thriller from the pen (keyboard?) of Matt Cost, an author who knows how to create a cast of appealing characters and then, once they get inside your head the fun begins! A riveting start to a new series which I’ll happily follow – so much going on, all cleverly plotted to make perfect sense and yet, when the final revelations come, there is always a surprise or two. A thrilling read, one I could hardly bear to put down, full of excitement and always throwing more questions into the mix. A dynamic novel, worthy of all five shining stars and my highest recommendation."~~Grace J. Reviewerlady

Praise for Mainely Money

"The characters along the way and the byplay between them kept me reading. He has the ability of Carl Hiassen, Elmore Leonard, and John Sanford to put a good very protagonist and his allies up against wild new characters who cause this reader at least to snort with delight. This is an intelligent romp I think you’ll enjoy. Brunswick, Maine sounds like such an interesting place, maybe I’ll spend the winter there next year instead of Florida." ~~Mar Preston, Reedsy

Praise for Mainely Fear

"Mainely Fear is a powerful and gritty storyline with a cast of animated, quirky and spirited characters who place themselves in the direct line of fire for a friend whose investigative techniques are painfully amateur, helpless and misgiving. Not everyone will survive; lives are threatened, families are broken, and one vulnerable young man is pulled in too many directions, unprotected by the people in charge."~~Sandy, The Reading Cafe

Praise for Mainely Power 

Cost’s cast of characters makes Maine mystery a treat

"Maybe it was the sleek brown dog with intelligent eyes poised next to the man on the cover. My first impression on beginning read a new mystery novel, “Mainely Power,” was this: Boston has Robert B. Parker and Maine has M. Langdon Cost. That initial impression, in some ways, wasn’t far off the mark. Parker’s hero, Spenser, has his dog, the memorable Pearl, and Cost’s hero has his four-footed companion, Coffee Dog. Beyond that, Cost, a onetime bookstore owner in Brunswick has crafted a private detective, Goff Langdon, whom Spenser might well meet for a few beers if a big-city case brought him to town. The town Langdon inhabits is Brunswick. And the case in “Mainely Power” centers on the murder of a security supervisor at a nearby nuclear plant. Why is the death called a suicide? Why does the local police chief cover up evidence that says otherwise? Before Langdon is done pursing the case, the tentacles of corruption will reach from a major state entrepreneur to the governor of Maine and involve people as different as U.S. senators and tree huggers. It’s an entertaining read. Cost writes with an edge that keeps his characters from slipping into stereotypes. Equally important, he keeps the story moving. His hero is tough but compassionate, hard but vulnerable. “Langdon understood that he was the worst kind of drunk, the kind who really didn’t drink much more than socially when things were going well, but whose gloves came off with a little disturbance”. Langdon is backed by a varied band of friends, male and female, who give real life to the book. Seldom has a mystery focused on men given better, stronger portraits of women than Cost gives of women in this book. Equally interesting is his sharply etched portrait of Maine. “Maine is changing quickly, if you haven’t noticed. The computer age of technology and all that,” a laid back lawyer named Jimmy 4 by Four tells Langdon. “Twenty years ago, the displaced, disgruntled Americans like me moved here to escape all of it, but it has come and found us. Faxes. E-Mail. The Net. Don’t kid yourself. Civilization and all that comes with it has found Maine…New York has moved to Boston. Which in turn has come to the suburbs, and believe it or not, Brunswick’s the suburbs now.” You may buy that view or dismiss it, but it’s a point of view around which Cost builds a mystery and a book. Given the intriguing cast of characters he’s created—and his credible hero—Cost, now a budding social studies teacher, may go beyond that and give us books in the plural."~~Maine Sunday Telegram; by Nancy Grape

Wry story of murder, coverup in Brunswick

"The events of recent months have brought increased scrutiny to the magnitude of the potential disaster housed in those strange and little understood—yet for the time at least, necessary—behemoth nuclear power plants nestled throughout America in unlikely places such as Seabrook, N.H., Long Island, N.Y., and, in M. Langdon Cost’s debut, self-published novel, “Mainely Power,” near the town of Brunswick, Maine. The mystery, published by 1st Books Library, centers on Cost’s fictional DownEast Power: It leads the reader not outward to international intrigue, but inward to a tangle of corporate interests and political in-game that determine much of life even in the relatively pristine “Vacationland.” Goff Langdon, the hero of Cost’s tale, is a Gen-X slacker detective with a penchant for driving his 1970’s beater convertible with the top down even in the dead of the winter, drinking too much on more occasions than he should, and regularly losing wrestling matches with his dog, Coffee. Cost describes him as “Bookstore Owner. Environmentalist. Football Fan. Red Meat Eater. He Voted Independent, sometimes Democratic, never Republican.” Goff, estranged from his wife of three years, considers himself to be “disillusioned with life at the tender age of twenty-eight”—but the events surrounding the murder of the head of security at the DownEast Power Plant jostle him out of the holding pattern he has allowed his life to become, with not a little self-pity. Although the books he sells in his mystery bookstore tout heroes like Easy Rawlins, Same Spade and Dave Robichaux, Goff is a far cry from those isolationist, stoic figures. Much of the power of this mystery comes from the way in which Cost creates and ensemble story, drawing into the tale the “whole network of people taking care of Goff, making sure he didn’t screw up his life” beyond repair. Including a gruff, burly cop who secretly writes poetry; an awkward, shy but surprisingly resourceful college girl; a tough, yet bored housewife and mother of three; an African-American bartender who has relocated to Maine to raise his family in relative quiet; and a post-Wall Street baby boomer lawyer hiding out in the woods of Bowdoinham. Then there are Goff’s two brothers, who, like Goff, have little to show for their lives thus far; and whose main strengths are their ferocious love for their brother and willingness to use their fists and firearms on his behalf. Cost’s tale follows not just Goff, but also all of these figures with their manifold hopes and disappointments, dreams and shortcomings. Cost spins his story of murder in a small town with a wry humor, a delicate touch at description, reflections on the changing face of Maine—not all of it, in Goff’s opinion, for the good—and a compassionate eye for even minor characters. A librarian just recently a widow who wants to help is described as “the type of lady who needed to be needed,” and an underachiever working at Cumberland Farms is seen as follows; “Didn’t have a car. Didn’t even have a license. Lived with his mother. But there wasn’t a mean bone in his body…The man could have been something more, could have gone to college, taken computer classes, gotten a better job. But then he would no longer be Danny T.” Cost’s plot is engaging and sharply drawn, conveying much of the inward-looking and closely held nature of Maine Culture. But beyond this, his story is most enjoyable for its true sense of nuances and texture, complexities, loyalties, disappointments, small kindnesses and care that make up relationships and much of small-town life. T.S. Eliot wrote that, “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” Cost has managed, with great skill, to take his hero and his reader on such a journey."~~Times Record, by Deborah Murphy 

Praise for I Am Cuba; Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

You do not kill ideas! 

"This book is riveting from the first page and it is mostly because Cost has a very real talent for telling the people’s story. At the time the media coverage of his story was very important, and Castro allowed Times journalist Herbert Matthews to join them in the mountains. For a while Castro was believed to be dead and it was Matthews who set the record straight.

"This book is a pleasure to read from the perspective of someone who knew very little Cuban history, and especially that of Castro’s role in its liberation. It is equally pleasurable to anyone with prior knowledge as its point of view is unique and its narrative filled with passion, loyalty and the universal need to fight for one’s own freedom no matter the consequences. A truly inspiring book that I highly recommend to anyone with an interest in history and/or the human condition."~~Meg Orton “For the Love of Meg” Book Reviewer

"I Am Cuba is a riveting and engrossing tale of the run-up to the Cuban Revolution and the ascendance of Fidel Castro. With rich historical detail and full, sympathetic characters, Matt Cost shows us how the rich man's son, that young lawyer from Havana, begins to build the Cuban dream. Not to be missed by fans of recent history and anyone else who loves compelling political stories rooted in real events."~~Richard Cass, author of the prizewinning Elder Darrow Jazz Mystery series

"I AM CUBA is a stunning historical novel about Fidel Castro's rise to power during the Batista regime. Author, Matt Cost, writes so vividly that he makes the reader feel like he's fighting in the mountains alongside Fidel and Che Guevara. A great read. I highly recommend this novel!"~~Joseph Souza, author of "Pray for the Girl" and the upcoming "The Perfect Daughter", as well as others.

Praise for At Every Hazard