The Case of the Colonist's Corpse

The Case of the Colonist's Corpse is a Pocket TOS novel – identified as "A Sam Cogley Mystery" – written by Bob Ingersoll and Tony Isabella. Published by Pocket Books, it was first released in .
== Summary ==
;From the book jacket
:When Captain Kirk faced court-martial, he chose the best lawyer in the Federation – Samuel T. Cogley, a cranky old man who prefers books to PADDs and people to computers.
:Now, once again, it's… SAM COGLEY FOR THE DEFENSE!
:The planet Aneher II sits in the middle of the Neutral Zone, and neither the Klingon Empire nor the Federation can claim it. Under the terms of the Organian Peace Treaty, any such contested colony world will go to the party – Federation or Klingon – which shows it can best develop the planet.
:At first the two colonies live in peace, but it's a fragile peace, one shattered when Administrator Daniel Latham, the head of the Federation colony, is found murdered, and Commander Mak'Tor, the head of the Klingon colony, is found crouched over Latham's body, a discharged phaser still hot in his hand.
:When Lieutenant Areel Shaw of Starfleet is assigned to prosecute Mak'Tor, Sam Cogley volunteers to defend the accused Klingon. But when Cogley's own investigation provides the prosecution with its key piece of evidence and his courtroom tactics unexpectedly backfire, can even the galaxy's most brilliant defense attorney win the day in…
:THE CASE OF THE COLONIST'S CORPSE
== Background information ==
* This is the first (and, to date, only) Star Trek novel from Ingersoll and Isabella.
* The concept for the novel came from Pocket editor John Ordover, who tasked the pair with writing "A mystery in the Star Trek universe". Ingersoll then noted that "[o]nce we had the basic idea, Tony and I brainstormed possible plot ideas for the one that we thought best combined the elements of the Trek universe and the Erle Stanley Gardner novels." ()
* This story takes place after and overlaps with the events of .
* This is one of several recent novels that have admitted they are an attempt to see Star Trek from the point of view of another television genre. Other novels along these lines include , which gives special thanks for the style of the novel to .
* The edges of the pages are dyed red in order to make the book resemble a '60s-era Perry Mason novel. Again, this was Ordover's idea, to capture the "old-time feel" of the novel. ()
== Characters ==
;James T. Kirk
;Spock
;Leonard McCoy
;Montgomery Scott
;Pavel Chekov : Ensign
;Samuel T. Cogley : Defense attorney
;Areel Shaw : Lieutenant, Starfleet prosecuting attorney
;Giotto : Lieutenant commander, chief of security
;Jacqueline LaSalle
;Peter Lawrence
;Daniel Latham : Administrator
;Grigoriy Nemov
;Helen Latham
;Mak'Tor
;O'Dell
;Ronald Saygar
;K'Vak
;Louis Alexander
;Homero Galdamiz
;Khogo
;Chiaki Iino
;Alexander Warren
;Sahirn P'Thall
;Faure
;Aaron Cole
;Daleel P'Thall
=== Mentioned ===
;Richard Daystrom
;Benjamin Finney
;Alexander Kirk
;Julius Kirk
;Peter Kirk
;Sam Kirk
;
;Janice Lester
;Carol Marcus
;David Marcus
;Gary Mitchell
;Norman
;Janet Wallace
== References ==
Andorian ale; bat'leth; Deneb V; d'k tahg; gagh; battle cruiser; photon torpedo; plomeek; Risa; sehlat; Sto-vo-kor; baffle plate
;Alpha Centauri A
;Alpha Centauri B
;Bradbury Building
;Christmas
;Denevan wheat
;Charles Dickens
;Dilithium
;D'Quas
;"Far-star" bug
;France
;Joranian ostrich
;Kradian
;Krador
;Lake Cochrane
;Landing Day
;William LaSalle
;Los Angeles
;Maggie's Planet
;Mini-comp
;Montana
;M-Project
;New Paris
;Pergium
;Phylosian swooper
;Rome
;Section 31
;Sherman's Planet
;Topaline
;warnog
== External link ==
*
Case of the Colonist's Corpse, The