100 Supernatural Detective Series — Monster Complex ™

Solving Mysteries One Monster At A Time

Urban fantasy and crime fiction make great partners: While the traditional detective investigates common crimes, the occult detective’s cases involve magic, monsters, and other elements of the supernatural. Want to meet some authors who mix the genres together? This list includes Jim Butcher, Shweta Taneja, Tony Hillerman, Seanan McGuire, Jewell Parker Rhodes, Ben Aaronovitch, Yoshihiro Togashi, Charlaine Harris, Daniel José Older, Amanda M. Lee, Jonathan Maberry, Kim Harrison, Simon R. Green, Benedict Jacka, Kalayna Price, plus tie-novels from The X-Files, Hellboy, Supernatural—and bunch more authors worth checking out.

01 The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

The Dresden Files tell the story of Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, Chicago’s first (and only) Wizard P.I. This contemporary urban fantasy series involves his investigations into supernatural disturbances in modern-day Chicago. The series includes more than a dozen novels, plus several novelettes and short stories. It was also adapted into a television series. The series started with Storm Front. The latest novels in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series are Peace Talks (Ace) and Battle Ground (Ace).

“Having everything look and feel consistent all the way through is one of my major concerns, and it gets more difficult with every book,” Jim told The Writing Cooperative. “That’s part of the unique joy of creating such a long story that people pay attention to. You kind of owe it to them to make sure it stacks up as well as you can make it.”

Related links:

02 Anantya Tantrist Mysteries by Shweta Taneja

Shweta Taneja started writing the Anantya Tantrist mystery series because she wanted to write detective fiction that mixed Indian folklore and supernatural creatures into a mystery. She hit upon her lead character, Anantya Tantrist, because she was bored of stories where men saved the day while the woman sat on the side. “I wanted a story in which a woman gets her hands dirty, has all the adventures, kicks the villains and goes to a bar later to celebrate. And Cult of Chaos is all that and more!”

Anantya’s first adventure is a heady cocktail of violence, tantrik magic, Delhi and darkness. Little girls are being sacrificed in a tantrik ritual. A desperate daeva is trying to blackmail detective Anantya Tantrist. A three-headed giant cobra turns up in old Delhi. The White and Red tantriks are facing off, and there is one or more Black tantrik brewing some dangerous shakti. As Anantya struggles to stop the madness, the supernatural underworld—peopled with creatures humanoid, barely human and inhuman—comes alive in all its bloody, gory glory.

The series includes Cult of Chaos, The Matsya Curse, and The Rakta Queen.

‘Anantya Tantrist is racy, rousing, rambunctious and rakshas-ful. Read immediately.’ – Samit Basu

“Each and every author I read has taught me something or inspired part of the way I write,” the author told Chevus’ Read. “I’m a voracious reader and pick up anything from fantasy, science fiction to romance or high literary or non-fiction. My favourite though, remain in the realms of fantasy: Masters like Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Ursula Le Guin and Octavia E Butler. I’ve learnt so much from each of these writers and keep learning everytime I pick their books up again.”

Related links:

03 Arcane Casebook Series by Dan Willis

Dan Willis writes the Arcane Casebook series, an urban fantasy supernatural detective series that offers a fantasy twist on the 1930s noir detective story. “I love noir movies, the high style Art Deco of 1930s, and I’m a madman for police procedural TV series,” Dan tells Monster Complex. “It was the perfect fusion of my experience. Now I love writing mysteries for Alex and mixing in those great Dieselpunk, retro-sci-fi elements with a twist of magic.”

The series started with In Plain Sight. The upcoming title is Arcane Casebook.

In our exclusive interview, Dan tells Monster Complex the role Jim Butcher played in the origins of the series, explains what sets the Arcane Casebook series apart from Dresden Files, reveals the genre interests that fuel his writing, and complains about his biggest horror pet peeves.

Related links:

04 October Daye series by Seanan McGuire

All the fairy tales are true; we just got the details wrong. Faerie has existed in parallel to our world since the dawn of the human race, frequently hidden, always present. This New York Times bestselling series from Seanan McGuire follows changeling knight and sometime P.I. Toby Daye through the streets of San Francisco and into the mercurial world of Faerie. The series began with Rosemary and Rue. The latest novel in the October Daye series is Be the Serpent.

“Toby is a fish out of water—sometimes literally,” the author told Bookpushers. “She’s half-human, which makes her weak and unequipped to handle the intrigues of the fae world, and she’s half-fae, which means she can’t turn her back entirely on Faerie. The Toby Daye books follow her as she tries to deal with Faerie without getting herself killed in the process.”

Related links:

05 Marie Laveau Mystery Trilogy by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Jewell Parker Rhodes launched her career as an award-winning novelist with Voodoo Dreams, based on the legend of New Orleans’s most famous voodoo priestess, Marie Laveau. In Season, the first book in the Marie Laveau Mystery Trilogy, Rhodes revisits the mystical landscape of Louisiana—but for the first time, the celebrated author of historical fiction presents a mystery set in the present. Season introduces Marie Levant, a great-great granddaughter of Marie Laveau and a medical doctor compelled by unseen forces to relocate from Chicago to her family’s native home. A smart modern-day heroine, Marie Levant extends the Laveau legacy of spiritual empowerment, prophetic vision, and voodoo possession. The novel was followed by Moon and Hurricane.

“Stereotypes about voodoo lurk insidiously inside our cultural imagination,” the author told Hermitosis: Interviews and Obsessions From the Horrified Mind. “As a novelist, I try to be transgressive, working within fictional traditions—historical, mystery, and horror—yet, always questioning the cultural subtext of imagery, characterization, and themes that appear in western literature. This questioning helps me layer another perspective that has been historically suppressed in our history books, literature, and media.”

06 X-Files by various authors

Mulder and Scully, FBI: The agency maverick and the female agent assigned to keep him in line. Their job: investigate the eeriest unsolved mysteries in modern America, from pyro-psychics to death row demonics, from rampaging Sasquatches to alien invasions. The cases the Bureau wants handled quietly, but quickly, before the public finds out what’'s really out there. The classic television series The X-Files also spawned all kinds of book and comics—including a series of novels.

Fantasy Book Critic talked with Kevin J. Anderson, who has written for several established universes—including Dune, Star Wars, and the X-Files. “What die-hard fan hasn’t made up his or her new adventures of a favorite show or movie? I always did,” the author said. “I always felt that I lived with those characters in my imagination anyway. (When I was in high school, I think I wrote about 70 of my own Star Trekstories.) I never stopped writing my own books, but I had a great time working in these great and popular universes.”

Related links:

07 The Jezebel Files Book by Deborah Wilde

A global wanderer, hopeless romantic, and total cynic with a broken edit button, Deborah Wilde writes funny, sexy urban fantasy books that star chicks who kick ass. Her debut series The Unlikeable Demon Hunter was described as “Bridesmaids meets Buffy.”

Her current series, The Jezebel Files, kicked off with Blood & Ash (The Jezebel Files #1): Cold-blooded kidnappers. Long-lost magic. When things get serious, she goes full Sherlock. The series has continued with Death & Desire, Shadows & Surrender, and Revenge & Rapture.

In this exclusive interview, Deborah explains the personal inspiration for the Jezebel Files, why she’s drawn to writing fantasy, heaps praise on Ilona Andrews, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Neil Gaiman, and reveals her pet peeves in horror fiction.

08 The Peter Grant/Rivers of London Series by Ben Aaronovitch

Peter Grant, an ordinary constable turned magician’s apprentice, solves crimes across London in a sensational blend of inventive urban fantasy, gripping mystery thriller, and hilarious fantasy caper. Ben Aaronovitch, who has also written novels featuring characters from Doctor Who and Blake’s 7, has collaborated on a series of original comic books that expand on the Rivers of London mysteries. The most recent novel in the series is Amongst Our Weapons (DAW) and the most recent comic book collected trade is The Fey And The Furious (Titan Comics).

“Having spent so many years in the racial straitjacket of British TV, working in prose gave me an opportunity to write London as it is, to me at least, as opposed to the city imagined by posh white provincials,” Aaronovitch told Den of Geek. “I grew up knowing loads of people from West African families, and so I could write people with their background with confidence. I knew fewer lesbians, so I needed to actively gather more information, and I didn’t know any police officers at all, so I had to start from scratch with them.”

09 Bone Street Rumba series by Daniel José Older

In Daniel Jose Older’s Bone Street Rumba series, Carlos Delacruz is one of the New York Council of the Dead’s most unusual agents—an inbetweener, partially resurrected from a death he barely recalls suffering, after a life that’s missing from his memory. He thinks he is one of a kind—until he encounters other entities walking the fine line between life and death. Daniel José Older is also the New York Times bestselling author of the YA series the Shadowshaper Cypher (Scholastic), and more. He won the International Latino Book Award and has been nominated for the Kirkus Prize, the Mythopoeic Award, the Locus Award, the Andre Norton Award, and the World Fantasy Award.

“The Bone Street Rumba series is about the secret, supernatural world that runs alongside modern day New York City,” the author told Project-Nerd. “It’s about the messy bureaucracy of death and people, both dead and alive, that don’t fit in simple boxes. It’s about seeing past the easy truths and getting into the nitty gritty messy ones. And of course, it’s about fighting evil necromancers and corrupt powermongers and soul-destroying imps and all that.”

Related links:

10 Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter

The Jane Yellowrock series by USA Today and New York Times bestselling author Faith Hunter stars a Cherokee shapeshifter who works as a professional vampire hunter in New Orleans. Through an accident of black magic, her soul is bonded with that of a mountain lion—and she is often struggling to fight for balance. Jane Yellowrock was introduced in 2009’s Skinwalker.

Faith tells me at Monster Complex:

“Jane started out as a sort of ‘paranormal biker chick-meets-Lee Child’s Jack Reacher.’ She was this socially insecure, awkward woman who, when she was five years old, accidentally did some black magic and absorbed the soul of a mountain lion. Coming to terms with that cat is a part of what helps Jane to grow through the entire series…
“That’s the internal conflict. Then you’ve got the external conflict that Jane, who kills insane vampires who are killing humans—that’s what she does, she tracks them and kills them—by the time we’re in book fourteen, she has not only been working for the vampires to keep peace in the vampire community because that keeps her friends, the witches, and humans safe, but she also has found a position of power among them. She goes from hating them to working with her worst enemy.”

Related links:

11 Supernatural novels by various authors

The CW television series Supernatural (2005-2020) follows brothers Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) as they hunt all manner of supernatural beings, including monsters, ghosts, demons, and more. Years ago, Sam and Dean lost their mother to a mysterious force. In the years since, their father taught them about the paranormal evil that lives on the back roads of America—and how to kill it.

The long-running show spawned a number of tie-in books, including a series of novels that expanded on the stories in the Supernatural universe. “Having in-depth knowledge of the show certainly is helpful,” novelist Alice Henderson, who is one of the authors, told The Winchester Family Business. “Not only do I have to be true to the characters and how they talk and act, but I also need knowledge of what’s going on in the season in which my book takes place. I have to know the right frame to put the characters in, to know what is troubling them and what their states of mind are. Thankfully, no fans have brought up continuity issues, and in fact, reviews have complimented my being so faithful to the show.”

Find a complete list of the official Supernatural novels at the link below!

Related links:

12 Repairman Jack series by F. Paul Wilson

Repairman Jack doesn’t deal with electronic appliances—he’s a situation fixer, no matter how weird or deadly a situation may be. Repairman Jack has no last name, no Social Security number, and no qualms when it comes to getting the job done—even if it means putting himself in serious danger.

Introduced in the bestseller The Tomb, Jack has been the hero of a series of exciting novels set in and around New York City. With the Repairman Jack series—a spin-off of the supernatural horror series The Adversary Cycle—bestselling author F. Paul Wilson explores the evil of man…and the supernatural evil that man keeps alive. The Manhattan-based urban mercenary who calls himself Repairman Jack makes his living “fixing” situations for people who cannot find help elsewhere…

13 Witch’s Path Series by N.E. Conneely

An urban fantasy series by N. E. Conneely, the Witch’s Path series explores the adventures of a witch named Michelle who is often hired as a consultant by local police and is joined by her elven companion, Elron. The author also writes two more series, Kelsey Pine: Urban Necromancer and the Earth Born Cycle.

The author explained to A New Look on Books why she loves to write about science fiction and fantasy: “Growing up I read so many novels with fantasy elements and I fell in love with the genre. Not only does it transport the reader to a wonderful new world, but it’s allows you to enjoy adventure without living through the hardships. Plus, many of the problems characters face in a fantasy world mirror ones each of us face in life. To me, that gives the reader a way to process a problem that they may struggle with in real life in a much less threatening way.”

Related links:

Complete Witch’s Path Series by N.E. Conneely
Podcast Interview: Ep 08: N.E. Conneely | Procedurals in a World of Magic

14 True Blood Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris

The Southern Vampire Mysteries, also known as The True Blood Novels and The Sookie Stackhouse Novels, is an urban fantasy novel series written by Charlaine Harris. that revolves around a world inhabited by supernatural characters, including vampires, werewolves, and magical beings. The first book, Dead Until Dark (2001), won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery in 2001. The books were adapted into the the HBO drama True Blood (2008–2014).

The star of the series is Sookie Stackhouse, a telepath who works as a waitress in Louisiana. In the world of the books, vampires are known to the public, but other supernatural beings—including werewolves and magical beings—do not become public knowledge public until later in the series.

The author explained what made her approach to vampires unique: “I think of them as adventure novels. Maybe the difference in my approach is the humor, and the fact that my protagonist has no increasing supernatural powers and has trouble paying her bills. (The telepathy? It's up in the air in the books as to where that came from.)”

Related links:

15 Abbott by Saladin Ahmed (Author), Taj Tenfold (Cover Art), Sami Kivela (Artist), Jason Wordie (Colorist)

Hugo Award-nominated novelist Saladin Ahmed (Black Bolt) and artist Sami Kivelä (Beautiful Canvas) present one woman’s search for the truth that destroyed her family. Hard-nosed, chain-smoking tabloid reporter Elena Abbott investigates a series of grisly crimes that the police have ignored. Crimes she knows to be the work of dark occult forces. Forces that took her husband from her. Forces she has sworn to destroy.

“The real inspiration is a type of paranormal investigator that we have seen in movies, comics and television in various eras spanning from the X-Files to Hellblazer,” the writer told Comics Beat. “Going back further, the main inspiration for Abbott is Kolchak: The Night Stalker which was an inspiration from back in the ‘70s. I have been watching, reading and thinking about adventures of this type starring a dogged investigator who uncovers a glimpse of something unnatural.

“It is a central idea in my work to take those stories that I enjoyed and put other people at the center of them rather than the people that are usually at the center of them. I start to think ‘what if we had a character like this hailing from a different demographic or different profile than what we usually see and what kind of challenges she encounters.’ I wanted to set an adventure in a city that I grew up with and put all these threads to come together which is where that idea came from.”

Related links:

16 Kolchak: The Night Stalker by various

Legendary television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974-1975) starred Darren McGavin as a Chicago newsman who investigated mysterious crimes caused by the monster of the week. The main character originated in an unpublished novel, The Kolchak Papers, written by Jeff Rice. After the success of the TV film and its sequel, the novel was published in 1973 by Pocket Books as a mass-market paperback original, titled The Night Stalker, with a photo of Darren McGavin on the cover to tie it to the film. The second television film, The Night Strangler, was also turned into a novel (written by Jeff Rice but based on a script by Richard Matheson), published in 1974 by Pocket Books. X-Files creator Chris Carter cited the “tremendous influence” of Kolchak. Although the series was short-lived, intrepid and underrated reporter Carl Kolchak has continued to investigate supernatural mysteries in novels and comic books.

“[Kolchak] kept stumbling across increasingly outrageous news stories that not only put his life in imminent danger,” commented Thrilling Detective, “but inevitably involved horrific—and unbelievable—supernatural or paranormal beings like vampires, werewolves and aliens.”

Related links:

17 Nightside series by Simon R. Green

PI John Taylor walks the streets of Simon R. Green’s Nightside, a slice of supernatural real estate hidden in the heart of London, populated by all manner of human and inhuman beings:

The Nightside is the dark secret heart of London. A city within a city where the sun has never shone and never will, where it’s always three o’clock in the morning, and where gods and monsters, angels and men can get together to do a little business, stab each other in the back and generally have a good time. Come to the Nightside, and you can pursue forbidden knowledge, or the kinds of pleasure that may not have a name but certainly come with a price tag; usually your soul or someone else’s. Where Hell is always in season, and sin is always on the menu.

The most recent title in the series is The Bride Wore Black Leather (Ace).

The author talked to Civilian Reader about Night Fall, his big crossover novel: “Night Fall ties together my two main series: The Nightside books, which feature a private eye operating in the Twilight Zone solving cases of the weird and uncanny; and the Secret Histories books, featuring the very secret agent, Shaman Bond. The Nightside is a film noir world, full of shadey characters. The Secret Histories was all about punishing the bad guys. So when these two worlds go to war… The body count is going to be amazing. But this book also features characters from my other series, like the Ghost Finders, Hawk & Fisher, Drinking Midnight Wine, and Shadows Fall. So essentially, this books stars everybody, and guest stars everybody else.”

18 Yu Yu Hakusho by Yoshihiro Togashi

Yu Yu Hakusho is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi. The series revolves around a tough teen whose one selfless act changed his life—by ending it. When Yusuku Urameshi dies saving a child from a speeding car, the afterlife doesn’t know what to do with him, so it gives him a second chance at life. Now, Yusuke is a ghost with a mission, performing good deeds at the beshest of Botan, the spirit guide of the dead, and Koenma, her pacifier-sucking boss from the “other side.” But what strange things await him on the borderline between life and death?

RELATED: Yu Yu Hakusho by Yoshihiro Togashi

19 Alex Verus series by Benedict Jacka

In this gritty, London-based urban fantasy series, Alex Verus is a magical diviner with a dark past. He’s part of a world hidden in plain sight, running a magic shop in London. And while Alex’s own powers aren’t as showy as some mages, he does have the advantage of foreseeing the possible future—allowing him to pull off operations that have a million-to-one-chance of success. The newest title in the series is Risen (Ace).

“I always had a particular interest in ethics,” Jacka told Grim Dark Magazine. “Much of the series is about the intersection of power and morality, and the conflicts between them.”

RELATED: Alex Verus books

20 Gethsemane Brown Mysteries by Alexia Gordon

In the first book of Alexia Brown’s cozy mystery series, African-American classical musician Gethsemane Brown accepts a less-than-ideal position turning a group of rowdy schoolboys into an award-winning orchestra. The perk? Housesitting a lovely cliffside cottage. The catch? The ghost of the cottage’s murdered owner haunts the place. Falsely accused of killing his wife (and himself), the ghost begs Gethsemane to clear his name so he can rest in peace.

“I never had any paranormal experiences,” the author told Writers Who Kill. “I grew up on horror stories and ghost stories of the fictional variety. I read Stephen King alongside Agatha Christie and Carolyn Keene. I know reputable, rational people who have reported paranormal experiences. I have no reason to doubt them—I’m related to some of them—so I can’t definitively say paranormal phenomena don’t exist.”

RELATED:

21 The Alex Craft series by Kalayna Price

Grave witch Alex Craft, who can speak to the dead, is a private investigator and consultant for the police. As a grave witch, she has the power to raise the shades of the dead—not ghosts (the disembodied spirits of the dead) but shades (the truth-telling memories of the dead). She operates her own business, called Tongues for the Dead, meaning that she helps the dead to speak. The most recent book in the series is Grave War (Ace).

“On the world building side, I enjoy working in a world that is recognizable but with a magical overlay,” the author told The Qwillery. “On the plotting side, I like the endless possibilities available to work with: add some mystery, some romance, some horror, etc.—anything goes. The readers of this genre are very well read and very accepting of other genre aspects in their stories.”

RELATED: Books in the Alex Craft series

22 Hellboy by various

Paranormal investigator Hellboy, created by writer-artist Mike Mignola, got his start in the comics. A half-demon summoned as a baby by Nazis, he was taken by Allied Forces and raised by Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, founder of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD). Hellboy and the BPRD protect the world from dark forces that are found in folklore, pulp fiction, and other horror stories. They’ve been adapted several times for the screen, including three live action movies, two animated films, and three video games. Hellboy has also starred in a number of prose adventures, including novels and collections of short stories.

“What makes Hellboy such a great candidate for prose—yes, the pulp elements are there,” Christopher Golden told Cemetery Dance. “Monsters and ghosts and adventure, Nazis and exploding jetpacks, occult mysteries. But really it’s the ordinary/extraordinary nature of Hellboy that makes for a great character in prose, the idea that he’s a demon who’s also just an ordinary Joe, someone who is frightening or so different on the outside, but so human on the inside. So weary. That makes for great stories. And the supporting cast is fantastic.”

Related links:

23 The Walker Papers series by C. E. Murphy

Joanne Walker is a police office—who also happens to be a Native American Shama. C.E Murphy also writes other romance and fantasy series, including Strongbox Chronicles, Negotiator Trilogy, and Inheritors Cycle. In the 2011 eBook exclusive Easy Pickings, Joanne Walker crossed over with Faith Hunter’s Jane Yellowrock from the Skinwalker series. The most recent book in Walker Papers is Shaman Rises (Harlequin MIRA).

“Joanne Walker is a Seattle cop with no use for the mystical,” the author told Vision: A Resource for Writers. “When a near-death experience introduces her to the Native American trickster Coyote, he gives her a choice between a shaman's life or death. The life she chooses plants her neck-deep in a facet of the universe she's never acknowledged before.”

Related links:

24 Laundry Files by Charles Stross

The multiple Hugo Award-winning Laundry Files series by Charles Stross mixes Lovecraftian horror, spy thriller, science fiction, and workplace humor. The series follows the exploits of a former tech support worker now-turned field agent, Bob Howard, at the Laundry, a top secret British intelligence agency dedicated to protecting the cosmos and human race from nefarious supernatural phenomenon beyond spacetime. Starting off with The Atrocity Archives, witness Charles Stross infuse each genre-bending novel with a blend of dark fantasy, bureaucratic humor, and the pacing of a hardcore thriller. An innovative spin on H.P. Lovedcraft’s “Cthulu Mythos,” the Laundry Files is perfect for fans of weird fiction and bureaucratic humor with a technological twist.

“I always had a fondness for the classic British Cold War spy thriller, but the cold war really ended before my writing career was off the starting blocks,” the author told SFF World. “I’ve also had an affinity for the tentacular horrors from beyond spacetime of H. P. Lovecraft—although some of the more dubious aspects of his milieux can take a raincheck. The Atrocity Archive originally began as an exercise in humorous mash-up fic: take a Len Deighton seedy back-street espionage agency, give it a Lovecraftian task, and parachute a totally incongruous hero into it—in this case, a sandal-wearing slashdot-reading dot-com era geek, who is left grappling with both the shitpile of paperwork his employers expect and require and the extradimensional threats trying to eat his brain. Then it all sort of snowballed on me…”

Related links:

25 Greywalker series by Kat Richardson

Harper Blaine was your average small-time private investigator until she died—for two minutes. Now Harper is a Greywalker, treading the thin line between the living world and the paranormal realm. And now she can see ghosts, zombies, and the like, which leads to her landing all sorts of “strange” cases. The most recent book in the series is Revenant (Ace).

“The concept of Death as Transformation rather than just The End is fascinating and a lot of writers and filmmakers have played with it,” Kat told Darkest Goth Magazine. “The real twist becomes the question of why some people are changed and others aren’t. Modern medical techniques bring people back from technical death all the time. Honestly. People die in hospitals or have heart attacks in malls and theaters every day and get back up and carry on with their lives because we have technology to zap their hearts and brains back up to speed. So… it’s not just having stopped for a moment that’s transformative. And that leaves an interesting conundrum to poke around with, even at a fairly light level like my books—because let us be honest and recognize that they aren’t scientific works of genius in the field of theoretical metaphysics—they’re just fun books. And I love poking at weird ideas and seeing what they do.”

Related link: Greywalker series books

26 Sam Hunter by Jonathan Maberry

Jonathan Maberry’s Sam Hunter is a PI in the big bad city. When he takes a new case it’s like he’s accepting the client into his ‘pack.’ And Sam will do anything to protect the members of his pack. Dogs are like that. So are wolves. And so, too, are werewolves. Like Sam.

Sam is a benandanti, an ancient race of werewolves who fight evil. And evil comes in all shapes and sizes; it comes at people from all directions. The cases Sam takes range from saving the world from genetically-engineered super soldiers to saving a young boy from the very real monster in his closet.

Beneath the Skin: The Sam Hunter Case Files gather together the weird, strange, funny, heartbreaking and disturbing adventures of a low-rent private investigator taking on very odd jobs. These stories include cameos by fan-favorite characters from Maberry’s bestselling Joe Ledger thrillers and The Pine Deep Trilogy.

“One of the things that I most want to do is write a straight-up noir-mystery,” the author told Nightmare Magazine before Beneath the Skin was published. “I’m playing with it a little bit with an urban-fantasy character Sam Hunter, who I introduced originally in a short story and I liked the character. I wanted to do a novel—I didn’t quite have a novel in my head, but I had a lot of stories in my head.”

Related links:

27 Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Books by Laurell K. Hamilton

Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter is a series of urban fantasy novels, short stories, and comic books by Laurell K. Hamilton. The books, which have sold more than six million copies, star Anita Blake—a St. Louis-based vampire hunter, zombie raiser, and supernatural consultant for the police. The long-running book series celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2018—which places Anita Blake’s debut after the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, but before the 1997 series.

In the world of the Anita Blake series, supernatural creatures and powers are known to the public. As the author explained the world of Anita Blake to IGN:

“Anita Blake’s world is as if we woke up tomorrow and everything that went bump in the night, every movie monster, is real. Not only are they real, they're legal citizens with rights. If you have a zombie shambling down the middle of the street, not only will the cops believe you, they'll send somebody with a flamethrower! Vampires are in the courts fighting to get their rights back. They want their money back—they want heirs to give back the property.”

The Anita Blake series follows her ongoing conflicts with the supernatural as she solves mysteries, comes to terms with her abilities, and navigates increasingly complex relationships. Below is a complete list to date of Anita Blake, Vampire books. Click here to skip to the Laurell K. Hamilton Interview Excerpts.

Related links:

28 John Constantine: Hellblazer by various

First appearing in the comic book issue The Saga of Swamp Thing #37 (June 1985), John Constantine is a working class warlock, occult detective, and con man stationed in London. Constantine received his own comic book in 1988. The character was portrayed by Keanu Reeves in the 2005 film Constantine, and by Matt Ryan in the television series Constantine. Ryan returned to the role on an episode of Arrow, and continued to play Constantine on the series Legends of Tomorrow.

According to DC Comics, Constantine is a notorious con man and grifter whose past has a body count—and his moral compass is as gray as can be. Constantine is an expert sorcerer and magician, but also an accomplished liar and thief known for his vices, self-loathing and on-again-off-again death wish. His abilities have afforded him the opportunity not only to cheat death, but to trick the forces that govern Heaven and Hell...meaning he has no shortage of powerful enemies.

Still, although John’s motives may be suspect more often than not, with enough effort, his selfishness can be chipped away, revealing a decent person buried beneath a carefully crafted persona. A lifetime of pain and suffering has hardened the Hellblazer on the outside, but deep down, he wants to do the right thing.

29 Allie Beckstrom series by Devon Monk

Using magic means it uses you back, and every spell exacts a price from its user. But some people get out of it by Offloading the cost of magic onto an innocent. Then it’s Allison Beckstrom’s job to identify the spell-caster.

Devon Monk is a USA TODAY Bestselling fantasy author whose series also include Ordinary Magic, Souls of the Road, West Hell Magic, House Immortal, Broken Magic, and the Age of Steam steampunk series. If it’s a Monk story, it’s stuffed with magic, action, heart, and humor.

“Since magic is one of the cool things about the world Allie lives in,” the author said in an interview, “I wanted to make it as physical of an experience as possible. And since everyone can use it, I wanted there to be rules, things that magic would and wouldn’t do, guidelines it would and wouldn’t follow. If it were as easy as clapping our hands, we’d have magic flying everywhere! There’d be no-clapping laws too, I bet. Heh.”

Related links:

30 Dirk Gently series by Douglas Adams

Following the blockbuster success of his Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy series, Douglas Adams published Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. The author described the comedy detective sci-fi novel as a “thumping good detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic.” The seeds for the book can be found in two serials that the author wrote for the BBC’s Doctor Who — “City of Death” and “Shada.” Other elements of the novel were reportedly inspired by Adams’ college years. The book was followed by The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. Adams died before finishing the third novel, The Salmon of Doubt—the published book is a posthumous collection of essays, articles, anecdotes, and stories.

Douglas Adams, a legend of imaginative fiction, ushered in the advent of comedic science fiction with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The book developed into a hugely successful series of five novels. The Dirk Gently series—Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul—helped cement Adams as one of the most successful and beloved authors in science fiction.

31 Prospero’s War series by Jaye Wells

In Jaye Wells’ series starring patrol cop Kate Prospero, action-packed police procedural meets dark urban fantasy in a world where cops and wizards are fighting a war over addictive, dangerous, and illegal dirty magic.

“For the Prospero’s War series, I spend a lot of time reading alchemy texts of all sorts,” the author told Pop Culture Beast. “Many of these revolve around how alchemy is partially a recipe for enlightenment, but there are so many layers to the history and practice that I’m always finding new twists and ideas to bring to the series.”

Jaye Wells, the author of more than a dozen novels, is best known for writing urban fantasy with her USA Today bestselling Sabina Kane series and the Prospero’s War series. In 2012, she won the Best Urban Fantasy Reviewers’ Choice Award from RT Book Reviews for Blue-Blooded Vamp, and her novels Dirty Magic, Volatile Bonds, and Silver-Tongued Devil were also nominated for the award.

32 Stories of Togas, Daggers, and Magic by Assaph Mehr

Author Assaph Mehr has created a series for lovers of Ancient Rome, murder mysteries, and urban fantasy. Felix the Fox, a professional investigator, is neither a traditional detective nor a competent magician—but something in between. Drawing on his contacts in shady elements of society and on his aborted education in the magical arts, Felix solves mysteries in the city of Egretia. The city borrows elements from a thousand years of ancient Roman culture, from the founding of Rome to the late empire, mixed with a judicious amount of magic. These are stories of a cynical, hardboiled detective dealing with anything from daily life to the old forces roaming the world.

“I always loved reading, and grew up on classic detectives (Agatha Christie, Conan Doyle, Raymond Chandler, DashielHammet, etc), as well as classic Science Fiction and Fantasy (Tolkien and too many others to list here),” the author told authorsinterviews. “At some point About 15 years ago I picked up a novel by Lindsey Davis and fell in love (again) with ancient Rome. I loved the period since I first met Asterix as a kid, and a teenage trip to Rome cemented it. But it was the cynical adult that sparked my literary interest in the period. When it came time to write, I just combined these three elements for a unique blend.”

33 Shadow Police by Paul Cornell

Paul Cornell is a writer of SF and fantasy in prose, comics and television—and one of only two people to be Hugo Award-nominated for all three media. He’s written Doctor Who episodes for the BBC, Batman and Superman stories for DC Comics, and the “mature readers” comic Saucer Country. His first urban fantasy novel, London Falling, kicked off the Shadow Police series—starring a modern undercover police unit in London accidentally becoming able to see dark magic and monsters.

“London Falling is Luther meets Buffy, modern London coppers suddenly gaining the ability to see the supernatural, and having to use real police tactics to survive,” the author told Fantasy-Faction. “A lot of police procedural research, a lot of dark humor. [It’s been called] the James Quill series, but ‘Shadow Police’ is what’s on the cover, and I think tells the reader that my four (or maybe five) heroes get equal time.”

34 The Hollows / Rachel Morgan series by Kim Harrison

Kim Harrison’s urban fantasy Rachel Morgan / The Hollows series is set in an alternate universe where supernatural beings (vampires, werewolves, witches, what have you) live among the human population, and the historical Space Race was replaced by a race among the nations in genetic engineering.

The series stars Rachel Morgan, a bounty hunter witch who works with local law enforcement and faces threats both natural and and supernatural. The stories also follow Rachel’s relationships with her partners, a living vampire and a pixy, as well as her personal relationships with males of different species. Although the series was thought to have wrapped up with 2014’s The Witch With No Name, Harrison returned to The Hollows with American Demon in 2020.

JUMP TO A SECTION

RELATED LINKS

35 John Conquer Series by Edward M. Erdelac

Edward M. Erdelac is the author of the acclaimed Judeocentic/Lovecraftian weird western series Merkabah Rider, Buff Tea, Coyote’s Trail, Andersonville, Perennial, Monstrumfuhrer, The Knight With Two Swords, and the compiler of Abraham Van Helsing’s papers (in Terovolas).

His latest book is Conquer, a collection of previously published and original stories starring supernatural private eye John Conquer, who solves occult mysteries in 1970s Harlem.

“I call Conquer a cross between John Shaft and John ‘Hellblazer’ Constantine,” the author told me at Monster Complex. “Tough, streetwise detective with a library and pockets full of charms, basically. He’s a bit of Howardian occult detective…but I wanted to eschew the usual European magical practices and delve into something more uniquely American. John Conquer’s background is that he’s steeped in lineages of both Creole Vodoun on his father’s side and Hoodoo on his mother’s—both ethno-religious magical and spiritual systems inidigenous to the United States, and southern African American cultural traditions in particular.”

RELATED: Occult Detective Q&A: Edward M. Erdelac (John Conquer Series)

36 Kara Gillian series by Diana Rowland

Cop and conjurer of demons, Kara Gillian is a woman in danger of losing control—to a power that could kill. . . .

Diana Rowland is an urban fantasy writer and is best known for her Kara Gillian Series and White Trash Zombie Series. She has worked as a bartender, a blackjack dealer, a pit boss, a street cop, a detective, a computer forensics specialist, a crime scene investigator, and a morgue assistant.

“One of the overriding themes in the Kara Gillian series is that evil is often a matter of perception. Many people who we might label as ‘evil’ don’t see themselves as evil,” the author told Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show. “As for my demons, they’re actual characters, not simply monsters to throw into the mix when things need spicing up. They have their own reasoning and motivation and, just like humans, they have moral codes and standards of behavior. Rules of engagement, you might say. Or honor.”

Related links:

37 The Witches of Echo Park series by Amber Benson

A series about a coven of witches living in L.A., written by Amber Benson, the actress who played “Tara” on Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. Unbeknownst to most of humankind, a powerful network of witches thrives within the shadows of society, using magic to keep the world in balance. But the witches are being eliminated—and we will all pay if their power falls…

When Lyse MacAllister’s great-aunt Eleanora, the woman who raised her, becomes deathly ill, Lyse puts her life in Georgia on hold to rush back to Los Angeles. And once she returns to Echo Park, Lyse discovers her great-aunt has been keeping extraordinary secrets from her.

Not only is Lyse heir to Eleanora’s Victorian house; she is also expected to take her great-aunt’s place in the Echo Park coven of witches. But accepting her destiny means placing herself in deadly peril—for the world of magic is under siege, and the battle the witches now fight may be their last…

“There’s a lot of stuff going on and it goes in and out of different times and so for me it was more about making sure that the perspective that I’m using to tell this part of the story made sense,” the author told Hollywood the Write Way. “The women are all slightly based off of my real friends, there are pieces of them. None of them are exactly alike but there are pieces so it was really easy to have them in my head while I was writing. I know their voices, I know how they are. So I stole from my friends (laughs).”

Related links:

Interview with Amber Benson (Otakus & Geeks)
Liz’s Interview: Amber Benson Talks About ‘Witches of Echo Park’ (Reel News Daily)
Interview with Amber Benson, author of The Witches of Echo Park (Geek Girl in Love)

38 Victoria Nelson / Blood Books / Blood Ties series by Tanya Huff

This classic urban fantasy series follows the adventures of the crime-fighting duo Vicki Nelson, a Toronto private investigator, and Henry Fitzroy, a Tudor-era vampire and romance writer. The books inspired an adaptation series on Lifetime Television.

“An interesting departure from the many vampire books now available. It provides an entertaining and engrossing story for leisure reading.” (Kliatt)
“A suspenseful story that deals with the emotional content of the situation rather than the obvious potential for overt horror.” (Science Fiction Chronicle)
“Huff has retained her humor along with her horror, her characters have continued to develop, and her plots are quirky and original.” (VOYA)
“Explores the borders of death and beyond with an intensity that is only partially lightened by touches of ironic humor. Written with the author’s usual flair for realistic fantasy.” (Library Journal)

Related links:

39 Dan Shamble, Zombie PI by Kevin J Anderson

Ever since the Big Uneasy unleashed vampires, werewolves, and other undead denizens on the world, it’s been hell being a detective—especially for zombie PI Dan Chambeaux.

Taking on the creepiest of cases in the Unnatural Quarter with a human lawyer for a partner and a ghost for a girlfriend, Chambeaux redefines “dead on arrival.” But just because he was murdered doesn’t mean he’d leave his clients in the lurch. Besides, zombies are so good at lurching.

Now he’s back from the dead and back in business—with a caseload that’s downright unnatural.

“Horror and humor have been used together very successfully for a long time,” the author told Diabolical Plots. “Look at Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Army of Darkness—and more recently, Shaun of the Dead, True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse. My Dan Shamble, Zombie PI stories are more like corny spoofs, Mad Monster Party, Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, but I fell in love with the characters so much when I was writing them, I would love to keep working on the series.”

Related links:

40 Negotiator series by C. E. Murphy

The Negotiator urban fantasy series stars Margrit Knight, New York City’s most unusual lawyer, who faces her toughest negotiations yet. The books are written by C. E. Murphy, an American-born author based in Ireland, who writes in both the fantasy and romance genres. She’s also the author of the Walker Papers series, among other books.

“I’ll never write exactly the same story as anyone else, even if we’re given the exact same premise,” Murphy told Rowena Cory Daniells. “That’s because we bring different things to the table, different talents, different voices, different viewpoints. Some of those will be female viewpoints, some of them won’t. Some of them I’ll connect with, some of them I won’t. It’s all about storytelling, not who’s telling it, to me.”

41 Diana Tregarde series by Mercedes Lackey

A sexy witch named Diana Tregarde who writes romances has her magic power boosted so she can help others. Series creator Mercedes Lackey, author of various fantasy and SF works, has written more than 140 novels and lots of short fiction. Many of her novels and trilogies are set in the world of Valdemar. Gizmodo listed her as one of the “most prolific science fiction and fantasy writers of all time.” In 2021, Lackey was named the 38th Damon Knight Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

“Most people, once they think about it, probably wouldn’t want to live in most fantasy or science fiction worlds,” the author told Tor.com. “But everyone I’ve talked to would like very much to live in Valdemar, and not just as a Herald, but as a perfectly ordinary person. They talk about rereading the books like it’s ‘coming home’ and they see the books as a place where they could feel safe and wanted and appreciated. It’s certainly gratifying…”

42 Deadwood Humorous Mystery series by Ann Charles

Welcome to Deadwood—the version from award-winning author Ann Charles. The world Ann has created is a blend of present day and past, of fiction and non-fiction. What’s real and what isn’t is for you to determine as the series develops and the characters evolve.

One thing about this series—it’s going to run on for quite a while, and Violet Parker will have to hang on and persevere through the wild adventures planned for her…

“I spent a lot of time growing up in the Black Hills of South Dakota, especially around the town of Deadwood,” the author told Lisa Haselton. “While my mom worked at a tourist shop every day, I would spend time visiting museums and hanging out in the library and exploring the little nooks and crannies around town. Many years later, I was visiting my mom while pregnant with my second child and wondered what it would be like to be a single mother trying to make a living selling real estate in the Old West town. Deadwood is notorious for its history of gold fever and violence (and it is rumored to be full of ghosts), so the possibilities for fun and adventure in fiction are abundant. That is how the Deadwood Humorous Mystery series starring Violet Parker was born.”

43 Jules de Grandin by Seabury Quinn

“Hercule Poirot meets Fox Mulder . . . gruesomely effective.”—Kirkus Reviews

Seabury Quinn (1889-1969) was an American government lawyer, journalist, and author. His short stories were featured in more than half of Weird Tales’ original publication run. His most famous character, the French supernatural detective Dr. Jules de Grandin, investigated cases involving monsters, devil worshippers, serial killers, and spirits from beyond the grave, often set in the small town of Harrisonville, New Jersey.

“Seabury Quinn was by far the most prolific contributor to Weird Tales,” notes SFE: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. “During its 31-year life, he published well over a hundred stories there, appearing on average in roughly every other issue. Many of these contributions—93 in all—featured his occult detective Jules de Grandin (whose surname was taken from Quinn’s own middle name) together with his assistant Dr Trowbridge.”

In de Grandin there are familiar shades of both Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, and alongside his assistant, Dr. Samuel Trowbridge, de Grandin’s knack for solving mysteries—and his outbursts of peculiar French-isms (Grand Dieu!)—captivated readers for decades.

A five-volume series from Night Shade, The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin, collects all ninety-three published works featuring the supernatural detective. Presented in chronological order over five volumes, this is the definitive collection of an iconic pulp hero.

44 Magebreakers by Ben S. Dobson

The Magebreakers novels follow a pair of magic-less investigators of the magical—the human Tane Carver and the half-orc Kadka. Join them in their adventures through the fantastic nation of the Audland Protectorate and beyond, as they solve murders and deal with mages and magical creatures of all kinds.

“An enjoyable read, well written with complex backstory, good pacing and solid characters. I’ll most likely look for the sequels.” (More Books Than Time)
“I love streamline, fantasy, and books with orcs in a positive light, underdog heroes, characters you can really get to know, and a good plot. This book has all this and more. The story is so good!!!” (Better World Books customer)

MORE SERIES

Felix Castor series by Mike Carey

Parasol Protectorate series / Alexia Tarabotti novels by Gail Carriger

Harri Phillecki, P.I. series by Keri Arthur

Souls of Fire Series by Keri Arthur

Damask Circle series by Keri Arthur

Charlie Madigan series by Kelly Gay

Grimnoir Chronicles series by Larry Correia

The Curse Workers by Holly Black

Alexandra Sabian series by Jeannie Holmes

Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito series by Tony Hillerman

A Witch P.I. Mysteries by Adele Abbott