The Tony Mandolin Mysteries Series

    Vampires don't exist, do they? That's a question Private Detective Tony Mandolin finds himself pondering as the evidence piles up pointing to just that in a case involving a string of dead redheads and the usual dose of weirdness San Francisco has to offer. To complicate things, Mandolin doesn't appreciate the perception of those around him that he's become the latest golden boy of Fog City's crime boss. None of that gets into his cross-dressing friend Frankie... Ahh, just another day in San Francisco.

San Francisco's only Private Investigator with an eye into the supernatural, Tony Mandolin, is having one of those months. His bad mood drives him to a local pub where he encounters his latest client, a Leprechaun who's lost his adopted niece who's a runaway Dryad. Tony's problems are only just beginning. Some days it pours and when Landau Bain, the city's crankiest wizard, arrives on Tony's doorstep, Momma Mandolin's baby boy knows what's comin' down ain't rain.

Who's poisoning San Francisco's foodies? Tony Mandolin, Fog City's only private eye with a view into the supernatural, has been retained to find out why gourmands are turning up dead all around the city. Unfortunately, this brings him to the attention of Medb, the Queen of the Unseelie Court. Tony's only hope of survival against the powerful fairy lies in the hands of an alcoholic wizard whose only mood-setting is cranky. So what happens if you happen to become the target of a witch working for the evil queen of the Sidhe? Well, if you're Tony Mandolin, a slightly worn out private eye living and working in San Francisco, you try to find out why and then you proceed to kick some fairy butt. Of course, if you also happen to be said private eye, you get your own butt kicked in the process.

All families come with their own unique problems, but when that family is a clan of Eastern European vampires led by an extremely wealthy viscount living it up in a luxurious, imported castle, only Tony Mandolin can solve the problem. San Francisco's only Private Eye with an eye into the weird runs into trouble with a pregnant werewolf. Tony swears he never laid a hand on her. Now someone's burning the city's more corrupt citizens alive from the inside out. Needless to say, the city fathers are not pleased. Compared to that, Tony figures taking on a job involving a vampire viscount's has got to be a no-brainer. But, when a wealthy guest of the Viscount goes poof in the middle of a costume ball, Tony's dealing with a different kind of fire he's not sure he can put out.

Does a clone have a soul? That's a question Tony Mandolin, San Francisco's Private Eye who has already seen far too much has to figure out when he's suddenly confronted with reports that his cross-dressing partner Frankie's been committing violent crimes all over the city, all at the same time. Who the hell's making "Frankie" copies? Tony wants to know. Taking a literal trip to the firey below may be the only way for a slightly tattered PI to figure this case out.

Someone is messing around with Luck. In a city with some of the largest underground gambling mobs in the world, Tony Mandolin, San Francisco's Private Eye to the odd and wonderful, finds himself neck-deep in Cartels, Triads, and Russians. Soon the world-weary, cynical PI winds up in a card game where the loser has to give up a whole lot more than just his chips. And now the Russians want their money back.

Tony Mandolin, San Francisco's PI to the weird, gets dragged into a fairy tale, literally. He finds out that much of the Grimm dimension has been a-hem, sanitized for the masses. Snow White is more like soiled snow and the dwarves can't stop smiling. Red Riding Hood is a PI and guess who her assistant is? Then there is this one-word question nobody wants asked, but when Monahan, Frankie, Greystoke and Alcina, Tony's ex-girlfriend get dropped into the party things go beyond weird and a big stinking pile of cliché hits the fan.

Some day's it just don't pay to crawl outta bed. That's Tony Mandolin's feeling when he has to deal with the original Count Dracula…and a massive hangover…at the same time. What does a rumpled private investigator do when the original Badass Bloodsucker wants to reunite with his estranged, "teetotalling" vampire family and figures Tony's just the guy to solve all his problems? And then there's this rogue dragon…

So, why is Santa having his elves pound the dickens out of Tony Mandolin? And why are all the heads of the Bay Area's Organized Crime Families asking Police Captain Monahan to have Tony deal with an interloper who is taking their empires down one by one? Someone or something is messing around with the spirit of Christmas, and Tony Mandolin, San Francisco's Private Eye for the weird has been chosen to solve the problem. Ho, ho, frickin' ho.

Over the past several years, Tony Mandolin has had dealings with the Devil, old slew-foot himself. During those times the guy with the red skin and horns has wound up on the losing end, but in their last encounter the Devil lost one of his lieutenants, permanently and now he is pissed, to say the least. Tony had been dropped into the fairy tale world by someone Lucifer would prefer you not mention, and while there, San Francisco's only PI of the weird managed to thoroughly mess up a scheme that had been millennia in the making, so now, even if it gets him a shortcut to the pit of fire, the Devil wants his pound of flesh, plus about another 200. And then there's this giant walking, talking Teddy Bear…

Over the past decade, Tony Mandolin, Fog City's top Private Eye has had his share of the weird and horrifying. If asked, he would say his life has been a stumble from one cliche to the next, but none of that prepared him for what was coming down the tracks. What does a world-weaxry PI do when his client is a centuries-old witch?

When Tony Mandolin upset the plans of the international child slavery ring, he had no idea just how far up the chain the consequences of doing that would run. Now he has a Vatican wetwork team after him and they have no problem taking out whoever is between them and a certain San Francisco PI. To add to the chaos, someone has figured out how to make paper money in the city deadly to the touch. Pickpockets are dropping like flies, and guess who has to solve the mystery in order to prove he's innocent?

It's unsettling when your work lands on your neighbor's doorstep. When you're Tony Mandolin, the bay area's PI to the weird, it's more than a problem. When it's a family of Garden Gnomes who've lost their pet, expect catastrophe. And then a new case lands in Tony's lap that has ramifications that lead all the way to Washington DC and it involves a child slavery ring.

Over the years, San Francisco's Private Investigator with an eye into the World of the Weird, caps intentional, Tony Mandolin has tackled vampires, demons, dragons, pixies, various members of the world of the fae and assorted things beyond description. All of them had one goal, the death of a certain PI. Most of Tony's cases occupy a set of volumes, ten of them, with more to come. However, a few of those cases were brief enough, pun intended, to fit into a shorter narrative. This collection holds the best of them. Enjoy with a pint of Anchor's best and one of Bunty's dogs.