INVESTIGATION, MEDIATION, VINDICATION
"I was having a pretty good Friday until the crab men tried to kill me."
An exiled vampire queen. A vegetable demigod. A magic Nintendo.
When supernatural forces collide, it will take a skilled mediator to keep the conflict from destroying San Diego.
Unfortunately, all they have is John Smith.
BLOOD IS THICKER
THAN LOTS OF STUFF
"Messy divorce? Check.
Emotional stability of the involved parties? Questionable.
Possibility of bloodshed? High.
Yep; it was definitely starting to sound like one of my cases."
In addition to being San Diego's supernatural mediator, John Smith is the city's least successful private investigator. Those two careers collide when what was supposed to be a simple infidelity case draws the attention of the local werewolf pack. John finds himself pressed into service mediating a separation between the pack's married leaders.
Even under normal circumstances, divorce is hell. But when werewolves are involved? It's murder.
GHOST OF A CHANCE
"Broken-Neck spat forth a stream of Spanish which no doubt contained a number of disparaging comments about my intelligence. Or my appearance. Or my fashion sense. The only Spanish words I knew were the expletives my friend Mike had taught me. Even so, I recognized insults when I heard them."
The White Ladies of San Diego are one of the city's supernatural powers, organized and led by Graciela. But now their leader is missing, and the Ladies have hired John Smith, supernatural mediator and sometimes-private-investigator, to find her. Which raises some questions; how do you track down a ghost? What if she doesn't want to be found? And if foul play was involved in her disappearance like the Ladies believe, how? It's not ghosts can be kidnapped, right?
John doesn't have any answers. As usual. He also doesn't have much time. The White Ladies aren't known for their patience, and if Graciela can't be found soon, he might just find himself permanently retired.
THE ITALIAN SCREWJOB
It's been several years since John Smith became San Diego's supernatural mediator, and he's as surprised to still be alive as anyone. A lot of the credit goes to Anastasia, the vampire whose relationship status with John can be safely filed under 'It's complicated.'
So when Ana's boss, Lucia, informs John that Ana has been imprisoned for killing Tomas, King of the Italian Court, he drops everything to go to her defense. If he can find the real killer--and unravel a centuries-old mystery in the process--his trip to Rome might just have a storybook ending. Assuming that Anastasia isn't the killer, anyway, which is far from a certainty, given both Ana's career as an assassin and the very public blood feud between Tomas and Lucia.
John has survived a lot of things--divorces, conspiracies, even angry demigods--but politics can be deadly even before regicide is thrown into the mix. This case is looking more and more like an Italian screwjob.
DEAD MAN'S FAVOR
More than a year ago, John Smith made a deal with Simon, San Diego's zombie prince; a future favor in exchange for help with one of his cases. Now, that favor is due. Simon's great-great-granddaughter has gone missing near the town of Ghost Falls, New Mexico, and he wants John to go find her.
Missing persons cases are a private investigator's bread and butter, second only to cheating spouses, and John's been back in San Diego just long enough that a road trip sounds fun. But when that trip involves Spanish conquistadores, disappearing towns, long-simmering curses, and renewed hostilities with New Mexico's werewolf pack, this one favor might cost John everything.
GODSWAR
A demigod is dead, murdered in his own domain, and nobody knows how or why. But that's just the start of John Smith's troubles.
Anastasia is sick, something strange is brewing in Rome, and for the first time in centuries, the Mer have fled the Pacific coastline.
If San Diego's most celebrated community college dropout can't get to the bottom of things, more than just the city could be doomed.
JOHN SMITH DOESN'T WORK HERE ANYMORE
If you ever have the chance to save the world, do it. Just try to avoid getting caught on camera in the process.
John Smith didn't pay much attention to that last bit, and now his name and face is all over YouTube as the man who revealed the existence of the supernatural world. Now, the government wants to have a long talk, his two-person agency is being targeted by groupies and cults, and a half-dozen paranormal coalitions are coming for his head.
And if all that's not enough, there's the one challenge that might truly be the end of John...
Fatherhood.