All The World’s An Undead Stage by Angel Martinez
Buy Links:
Pride Publishing: https://www.pride-publishing.com/book/all-the-worlds-an-undead-stage
Note: The general release date for this title is 1/2/18
Series Name: Offbeat Crimes
Position in Series: 6
Necessary to Read Previous Books? No, But
Doesn’t Hurt
Blurb:
Carrington
Loveless III, skim-blood vampire and senior officer of Philly's paranormal
police department, has long suspected that someone's targeting his squad. The
increasingly bizarre and dangerous entities invading their city can't be a
coincidence. So when a walking corpse spouting Oscar Wilde attacks one of his
officers, Carrington's determined to uncover the evil mind behind it all.
As a rare books librarian, Erasmus Graham
thought he understood some of the stranger things in life. Sharing a life with
Carrington's shown him he didn't know the half of it. They've survived attack
books and deadly dust bunnies together and got through mostly unscathed. Now
his world and his vampire's appear ready to collide again. Books are missing
from the rare books' collection—old tomes of magic containing dangerous
summonings and necromancy. He's certain whoever's been stalking the
Seventy-Seventh is composing their end game. It's going to take a consolidated
effort from paranormal police, librarians, and some not-quite-authorized
civilians to head off the impending catastrophe.
All The World’s An Undead Stage
Series Blurb:
Every region has them, but no police
department talks about them—the weird crimes, the encounters with creatures out
of nightmares. The 77th Precincts exist in certain cities to handle
paranormal crime and containment, usually staffed with experienced officers
exhibiting psychic abilities.
In Philadelphia, through an odd mix of
budget issues and circumstance, the 77th is manned entirely by officers
with bizarre or severely limited psychic talents. The firestarter who can’t get
a spark when it’s humid. The vampire who can’t drink whole blood. These are the
stories of the misfits, the outcasts from even the strangeness of the
paranormal community. Call them freaks, but they’re police officers first,
serving and protecting, even if their methods aren’t always normal procedure.
Excerpt:
"Hunter?
It's all right. I promise." On his knees in the room LJ and Hunter shared,
Carrington peered under the bed where Hunter huddled in the far corner.
"No one here will hurt you."
To Carrington's relief, his mom had taken care of nearly all of the
arrangements for this open house luncheon on and left him out of it. He
would've preferred something with less fuss and fewer caterers but it was only
for a few hours. The squad room would survive. His only task now was to try to
coax an obviously spooked Hunter out from under the furniture.
"I have a theory," Jeff said from where he leaned in the
doorway.
Carrington smacked his head on the bedframe trying to reach far ther
underneath, so his next words were sharper than necessary. "Oh, yes? I
don't suppose you'd care to share this brilliant bit of enlightened
thinking."
Jeff let out a little huff. "Not if you're going to take my
head off."
"My apologies. I'm not in the best position to be civil at the
moment."
"I can wait until I’m not talking to your butt."
"Fine." Carrington eased out from under the bed and sat
back on his heels. "What's your thinking here?"
"When Hunter was living on her own, she was pretty careful and
particular, wasn't she?"
Living on her own translated as when she was homeless, and careful
and particular into skilled and cautious thief but Carrington appreciated his
colleague's care with Hunter in the room. "So one is given to
understand."
"I'm thinking maybe someone or several someone's invited today might have been a target. Maybe Hunter's afraid of someone recognizing her and making the connection."
"I'm thinking maybe someone or several someone's invited today might have been a target. Maybe Hunter's afraid of someone recognizing her and making the connection."
Carrington leaned down far enough to peer under the bed again.
"Is that it, Hunter? Are you concerned that someone will recognize you
from your previous life?"
Even with Hunter scrunched in the corner, she still managed a collar
nod.
"Very well, then." Carrington patted the mattress. "We'll close the door, Ms. Hunter. You don't have to see anyone if you don't wish to."
"Very well, then." Carrington patted the mattress. "We'll close the door, Ms. Hunter. You don't have to see anyone if you don't wish to."
A sleeve poked out from under the mattress to pat Carrington's hip.
He took the hint and got to his feet to give Hunter room to wriggle out. She
floated up and settled carefully on the blankets with her sleeves crossed.
"My word of honor." Carrington held up both hands.
"You can lock the door behind us."
She slumped as if in relief and nodded. Then she twitched up
straight, holding up a sleeve to ask them to wait. Jeff peered over
Carrington's shoulder as Hunter pulled a box out from the steamer trunk she
shared with LJ. She handed the box to Carrington with a sleeve motion that
appeared to mime pulling up a zipper.
"This is for LJ?" He waited for her nod. "I'll bring
it right out to him."
As he'd promised, he shut the door behind them to give Hunter her
privacy and found LJ in the squad room with Audacity under one arm. Their
kitten wore a scaled-down version of a black K-9 vest.
"Don't you look official?" Jeff let her catch one of his
fingers to gnaw on.
Carrington gave her an approving nod. "It suits you. Do you like your new uniform?"
Carrington gave her an approving nod. "It suits you. Do you like your new uniform?"
Mew. Miii-iiw. Audacity pedaled with all four paws until LJ set her
down. She turned in an obvious modeling pose to show Carrington one side of the
vest with POLICE stenciled in white block letters, then turned to display the
other side with CADET FAMILIAR. If that wasn't Jason's idea, Carrington would
eat his police hat and Amanda's.
"Outstanding, Cadet Audacity. Very sharp." Carrington
carefully kept the laughter from his voice since she was taking it all so
seriously. But it was difficult in the face of such monumental cuteness.
"LJ, Hunter refuses to come out but she sent you this."
He handed over the box and stayed to watch LJ ease it open by
pinching the top with his sleeve. The long slender shape of the box made guessing
the contents easy and Carrington wasn't disappointed when LJ held up a
regulation police uniform tie. LJ stared at it a moment, his version of staring
at any rate, then gave a sharp nod before he handed tie and box to Carrington
to hold.
"You don't—" Carrington nearly asked if he didn't want it
but LJ's intentions became obvious when he zipped up his front and straightened
his collar. "Ah. Would you like me to do the honors?"
LJ gave another nod as he held himself straight and still. Strange
to see him that way. He almost never zipped himself closed and never floated
completely still. Carrington stood behind him to get the tie on just right,
easier than trying to think about tying one backward, and finished it off with
the silver tie clip Hunter had provided.
"There, sir." Carrington clapped him on both shoulders.
"Almost as sharp as Audacity."
LJ had no way to blush, but his front
puffed out just enough to be noticeable and who would ever have predicted that?
A jacket entity, former street thug and informant proud to wear police issue
anything.
Author Bio:
The unlikely black sheep of an ivory tower intellectual
family, Angel Martinez has managed to make her way through life reasonably
unscathed. Despite a wildly misspent youth, she snagged a degree in English
Lit, married once and did it right the first time, (same husband for almost
twenty-four years) gave birth to one amazing son, (now in college) and realized
at some point that she could get paid for writing.
Published since 2006, Angel's cynical heart cloaks a desperate
romantic. You'll find drama and humor given equal weight in her writing and
don't expect sad endings. Life is sad enough.
She currently lives in Delaware in a drinking town with a college
problem and writes Science Fiction and Fantasy centered around gay heroes.
You can take a look at Angel's Website and follow
her on Facebook and Twitter.
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