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