The Fortgang Chronicles follow the trials and tribulations of Rob Fortgang, the erstwhile “holistic” private investigator, who makes his home in Ashland, OR. After fleeing an irate husband in Phoenix—don’t tell him that following philandering husbands is without danger—he made his home in Ashland. He noticed a certain vibe around the city, hence the “holistic” in his title.
Business isn’t going well and he finds himself in pecuniary distress on a regular basis. Nevertheless he prevails. The stories below chronicle some of his more memorable cases. All stories are available for free. If you use Apple devices you can download them via the Apple Books app. For all others, click the covers below and down load the epub file.
Rob has opened shop in Ashland, but has no customers. Short of cash he advertises on telephone poles and in the laundromat. That lands him a case but he needs all of his wits to sort out who’s taking whom for a ride.
Rob gets a case here and there, but that doesn’t help his cash flow. He ends up couch surfing with a friend until he gets a case that seems easy. Find some missing gold coins. Little does he know he’ll be facing some very unsavory characters soon.
Rob is minding his own business, enjoying an ice cold gin at his favorite bar. He gets a tip from a fellow barfly and ends up facing a locked room mystery. How did Dexter get killed when he was locked inside alone with the window closed?
Business is so bad, he ends up taking a job stealing back a little dog from Evie’s ex-partner. Before he knows it, he’s ferreting out a scam that involves some valuable property.
Ashland being the home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, it was only a question of time before Rob would face a case of Shakespearean dimensions. It starts with a real skull being dug up and ends with a crazy caper all over southern Oregon.
After a hiatus, during which he goes about his PI business, Rob finds himself in the midst of the COVID pandemic. Business is off and he is forced to take paid employment as a contact tracer. Of course it only takes a couple of days before he nets himself a new case with oenological dimensions.
A random encounter with some of Ashland’s more ‘out-there’ denizens pushes Rob into a direction he’d never imagined—trying to understand where someone else might be coming from. It helps that unmasking a scam-artist is part of the process.
