about fredrick cooper

author of adventure thrillers set in vivid worlds.

Enthralling stories alive with mystery and suspense set in the captivating settings of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

My story

If you enjoy exciting stories with vivid settings, especially in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and Alaska, you can find my books in paperback and ebooks through various online sellers. Be sure to visit my blog page to read whatever is on my mind at the moment about books or simply about the business of writing.

I have wanted to be a novelist for a very long time and for more than 30 years my use of the written word was for engineering and technical reports and journal articles. My debut novel, Riders of the Tides, was finally published in 2012 after spending nearly seven years writing it and two years devoted to the publishing process. My second novel, Destruction Island, went much faster and took maybe two years from start to publication in 2014. While both novels are thrillers, they are in a sense historical fiction set in the coastal communities of SW Washington State where I was born. I based the stories on real life relatives.

Like the characters in my novels, I was raised in close association with the timber and fishing industries and the sea in the Pacific Northwest and Southeast Alaska. Prior to obtaining a doctorate in civil engineering and pursuing a professional career, I had worked as a road surveyor, longshoreman, commercial fisherman, cannery worker, and even as a technician and news announcer in a cable television station in a small community in Alaska. I am an enrolled member of a Northwest Indian Tribe and, in addition to creative story-telling, I like to do wood carving and specialize in Native American objects such as canoe paddles and ceremonial items.

I am an active member of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association and the Willamette Writers and divide my time between Portland, Oregon and being on my boat in Southeast Alaska. His debut novel, Riders of the Tides, was recognized with: a 2013 IPPY award for Best Regional Fiction: West-Pacific Region; a 2014 Beverly Hills Book Award finalist in the new fiction category; and Honorable Mention in the 2014 Hollywood Book Awards General Fiction category.