Showing results by author "Douglas Lumsden" in All Categories

Benedict Shade, were-cat and collector of exotic magical artifacts, is tasked by the Lord’s Investigation Agency to “collect” (i.e., “steal”) two pieces of fossilized dung from a river spirit in a backwoods town. What seems to be a routine job (for him) turns out to be anything but. Everyone in town believes Shade is an undercover agent for the LIA, a charge his hepcat buddy, Dwayne, is quick to remind him is true. A mysterious femme fatale can’t decide whether to seduce Shade or let him be killed by a horde of human mudfish.

A routine case of industrial espionage pitches hardboiled PI Alexander Southerland headlong into a maelstrom of shadowy political intrigue and deadly supernatural mayhem - not to mention some malevolent owls and the mysterious "boy who talks backwards"! After his exposure of a white-collar thief has harrowing consequences, a guilt-ridden and disconsolate Southerland roams the mean streets and dark alleys of Yerba City seeking to uncover a secret so stunning - so staggering - that just knowing it could unravel the bonds that keep the social order from dissolving into chaos!

Alex Southerland is back, along with Smokey and Badass. Our hardboiled private dick and elementalist is searching the mean streets of the city for the secret behind a deadly curse. It all starts during a rare Yerba City heat wave when a witch with strange snake tats winding up her gams walks into his office to report that she has committed a murder. Thing is, the murdered man isn't dead, and, well, it's complicated.

Years ago, while serving in the Borderland, Alexander Southerland watched helplessly as his friend was terrorized and murdered by the Sihuanaba, a mysterious avenging spirit known as the Woman in White. Now an established private investigator in the teeming metropolis of Yerba City, Southerland finds himself on a collision course with this specter from his past. As the detective tries to solve the riddle of a beautiful nightclub singer’s death, Southerland finds himself battling corruption, temptation, betrayal - and deadly horrors from his own nightmares!

Coming off a heartbreaking whirlwind relationship, a despondent Alexander Southerland returns to the streets of Yerba City when he hears that an old acquaintance is a person of interest in the murder of an unregistered adaro nymph.

A troll in a pinstriped suit walks into a bar. He's looking for Alex Southerland, private investigator and summoner of elementals. A gorgeous dame is going to come to Southerland with a case, and the troll tells him that he is going to turn the case down - or else! But Southerland doesn't respond well to threats. Besides, he needs the dough! Framed for a murder he didn't commit, Southerland weaves his way from seedy neighborhoods to the dazzling lights of downtown - and from one savage beating to the next - to clear his name and uncover a shocking secret.

Alexander Southerland is hired to discover how a teenage boy is disappearing at night without passing through any doors or windows. Next thing Southerland knows, he’s shackled to an altar while a hungry spirit prepares to sacrifice him to “the toothless one who brings nothing but good.” Southerland soon finds himself negotiating a minefield of dream-hopping supernatural spirits, howler monkeys, a homicidal client, a shotgun-wielding spinster, and a whistling demon.

Crawford the were-rat checks into a shady hotel and promptly stumbles over a dead man. A mysterious troll is obsessed with finding the dagger that killed him—a dagger possessed by a demon! The demon denies that he is a demon and is obsessed with regaining his freedom. Meanwhile, the hotel’s night clerk is obsessed with the hooker on the third floor. Crawford is obsessed with what’s in the hooker’s room: a solid gold statuette of a demon-slaying goddess! Crawford has checked in, but when obsessions collide, does he have any hope of checking out?

Alexander Southerland knew Cindy Shipper for only the briefest of days, but his memory of the alluring femme fatale has haunted his dreams ever since. Now Cindy’s literal ghost has come rapping on his bedroom window, seeking the reasons behind her brutal demise. The mystery of Cindy’s death seems obvious to Southerland, but the working-class P.I. quickly learns a valuable lesson: when it comes to sudden death, nothing is ever simple.

Benedict Shade, a were-cat and collector of exotic and potentially lethal magical artifacts, arrives in Yerba City with his good buddy, Dwayne, to “collect” (some would say “steal”) an unusual dagger that is much more than it seems. Little does Shade realize that the dagger was involved in an assassination attempt with dire consequences.