Book picks similar to
The Hammer Commission by John Van Stry


fantasy
urban-fantasy
wf
paranormal-mystery-detective

Bill the Vampire


Rick Gualtieri - 2011
    He isn't one of them. Meet Bill Ryder: programmer, gamer geek, and hopeless dweeb when it comes to women. All he ever asked for out of life was to collect his paycheck, hang out with his buds, and eventually (someday) ask out the girl of his dreams.However, then Bill met Sally. She was mysterious, aggressive, and best of all...smoking hot. Bill never stood a chance. Before he knew what was happening Sally had lead him to his death, and that was only the beginning of his troubles. Now Bill awakes to find himself an undead predator of the night. The only problem is he’s still at the bottom of the food chain. He’s in way over his head, surrounded by creatures more dangerous, better looking, and a whole lot cooler than he is. Worst of all is the dreaded Night Razor, a master vampire who just can’t stand him. He gives Bill a 90-day deadline to either prove himself or meet a more permanent kind of death, and the deck is definitely stacked against him.But Bill isn’t exactly average. A vampire like him hasn’t been seen in over five centuries. He's got a few tricks up his sleeve, unlikely allies to help him out, and an attitude problem that makes him just too damn obnoxious to quit. He may just pull it off... if he doesn't get his teeth kicked in first.Bill the Vampire is an 80,000 word horror comedy adventure by Rick Gualtieri.

Demon Hunter: The Vermillion Cabal


Michael Dalton - 2021
    But much about his background and relationship to the infernal bureaucracy remains a mystery he struggles to unravel.Hired to recover a powerful grimoire lost by Hell decades ago, Jimmy and his harem come into contact with a mysterious group known as the Vermillion Cabal. But the threat the group poses is not what it seems, and the job soon leads to a shocking series of discoveries about Jimmy’s past.With his life hanging in the balance, Jimmy must decide which path he will walk, and where his allegiances truly lie – assuming those decisions have not already been made for him.The Vermillion Cabal is second novel in the Demon Hunter series and contains explicit adult scenes and themes of black magic and demonology.

Fae, Flames & Fedoras: A Changeling Blood Universe Novella


Glynn Stewart - 2019
    With half a dozen mortal workers dead, the Fae Courts of the city find themselves forced to action despite their desperate lack of manpower.Their call for aid brings six young Fae to the city, among them the Seelie Noble Talus, son of Korinth. New to the city and expendable, they are tasked with finding the creature underneath the city.The youths are assured that nothing in the world can stand against six Fae Nobles.On the other hand, nothing supernatural should have been sleeping under New York City…This novella was previously released as part of Spaceships and Spellcasters ebook and is part of the print collection Spaceships and Spellcasters.

Adventurer Academy


Daniel Prince - 2019
    Destined to be a hero.Half-Orc. Half-Human. All Champion.Lugor is a Half-Orc, and in his world, that's a very dangerous thing to be.He dreams of becoming an Adventurer, slaying monsters and delving into dungeons. Unfortunately for him, one cut to his skin could reveal his secret. He's forced to spend his days in his small village, working at the Smithy and keeping his head down.But when his world is turned upside down in a monster attack on his village, Lugor seeks training at the Adventurer Academy, where he can learn to become the Champion that he was born to be. It won't be easy, especially whilst contending against an arrogant mage who is determined to see him fail.With a steadfast Dwarfen Elementalist and a sarcastic Dark-Elf Necromancer by his side, Lugor sets out to prove that just because he's Half-Orc, doesn't mean he can't be a hero.

Gaia's Gambit


D.L. Harrison - 2018
    Had survived, as far as Jason knew.Jason lived the last millennia in a virtual utopia, which was slowly driving him insane. His mind suspended in a computer matrix, an ark of sorts, until they could grow new bodies and rejoin the real world, to rebuild. It would be a long time before the Earth recovered. Only four million out of billions had been saved in such a fashion, he was one of the lucky ones.At least, he’d been in a utopia until that morning, when he woke up in a new world on a bed of moss in the middle of a forest glade. Alone. No breakfast, no coffee, and no bacon. He wasn’t sure what to do, but he didn’t really have a choice but to move forward, it was either that or starve himself to death over and over. Not really a choice at all. Well, either that or be killed by monsters.He just wished he knew what the hell Gaia was thinking. Elves, dwarves, evil races, magic, swords, and bows? The A.I. must have lost her mind…

Fledgling


Katrina Cope - 2015
    Each day, unknown forces are taking over the human race. Evil is growing stronger, and innocence is the victim. If not stopped, the future of humankind is bleak. With current protection angels being stretched past their limits, a new wave of protection is being developed. A new breed of angel is being trained to fight. Fledgling is one of them. She did not ask for this life. After living three short lives as a human, she was chosen. With a mind of an eighteen-year-old, she struggles to adapt to her new life surrounded by angelic rules. All contact with her past life is ruled prohibited, and romance outlawed. Yet she still finds herself torn between her kind-hearted trainee friend, who has gorgeous blue wings with matching eyes, and the love of her human lives. Her human love is on the verge of either joining the angels or becoming lost to her forever. She is forbidden to intervene.Despite her qualms, she is passionate about saving the innocent. Will she be able to place aside her struggles in order to fulfil her passion and new life, or will she become exiled from succumbing to her temptations?

The Arwain Chronicles: Book II


Iceheart Phoenix - 2016
    Death is only just the beginning...

Witching Hour


Bradford Bates - 2017
    School was almost over, and that meant she would start training to take over her mother's coven. That didn't mean she wanted to, but she had years of brutal training to endure before she would be shackled by that responsibility. Hopefully, years where she wasn't forced to live at home like she was now. That no boys in the house rule was the worst. No boys allowed seemed like the worst that could happen, but that was before her family was attacked. Now Rebecca would give anything to be part of her family's drama again, but that wasn't possible, not with Ash on her tail. Staying two steps in front of Ash's torturous pursuit had become her life's only goal. Each day was a chance to bury the past. Nothing else mattered except keeping her mother's grimoire safe. Finding sleepy little Salem, Oregon might just be the key to her salvation. Although, Salem was harboring a few secrets of its own, and one of those secrets hated when witches stepped foot inside her city unannounced. What happens when Salem's dirty little secret and the new witch in town collide?

Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven


Bella Forrest - 2018
    It’s how she snagged her first job pinpointing cheaters at a casino.But she has no clue where she got these freakish powers because she spent her childhood jumping from home to home in the foster system, and her father left her with nothing more than a cryptic note.Then she crosses paths with a terrifyingly real monster. Which is when a mysterious and annoyingly arrogant young warlock named Wade Crowley steps in, introducing her to a hidden world of beasts, magicals, and covens riddled with secrets—as well as clues about her murky past.Whether she likes it or not, this new world is where she belongs. But after a disturbing twist of events, Harley quickly realizes that her past is darker than she could ever have imagined.And that someone in the coven is out for her blood.With the help of Wade and her new friends, she must figure out who the traitor is and why they’re targeting her... Before the human and magical worlds dangerously collide.

Monster Hunter


Eric R. Asher - 2017
    They are the keepers of a centuries-old legacy of The Church defending the world against the forces of darkness. They are a bunch of highly armed rednecks, internet video celebrities, soccer moms, and assorted broken nutjobs.They are the new Templars, and things are about to get weird. From the pages of Bubba the Monster Hunter comes a new series featuring the Hunters from around the United States hunting down monsters, fighting off supernatural baddies, and making life really, really bad for the things that hunt people.He's Mason Dixon, and he's a bona fide internet celebrity. He has his own video series, a pistol that deserves its own area code, and a high definition video camera, and he's not afraid to use any of them. In this introductory urban fantasy novella, we meet Mason, his right hand Emma, his "handler" Noah, his anime-styled hacker friend Himari, and more monsters than you can shake a stick at. Unless it's a really big stick. With Mason, it's always a big stick. This first novella in the series follows Mason through the wilds of Missouri as he hunts down monsters that hunt men, monsters that eat chewing tobacco, and monsters that make pancakes. And there's moonshine.And then Bubba the Monster Hunter shows up. The New Templars novella series is a new series of short novels, similar to BookShots. Mason Dixon - Monster Hunter is the first in the series by popular urban fantasy and steampunk author Eric R. Asher.

Pound of Flesh


J.A. Cipriano - 2016
    For one, most of them don’t have to kill people to stay alive. I do. It’s a half-demon thing. Yep, that’s right, half-demon. It’s awesome, especially since I’m half-warlock too, and those two sides don’t much get along. Still, that and a buck will get you a candy bar. So it’s all good. Or at least it was. See, I had this dumb idea to stop a robbery in progress and have myself a snack. Turns out these weren’t your run of the mill robbers. No, these were demonic slavers, there to capture the district attorney and sell her off to the highest bidding demon in Hell. Now if I want to stop them, I’m going to have to fight my way through a city full of hellfire-flinging, gun-toting, spell-weaving demons. My name is Roy Morgan, and I think I’ll have seconds.

Sword Sirens


Edmund Hughes - 2019
    Completely cutoff from the outside world, the men and women of the Hollow follow the teachings of the prophet Dormiar, sacrificing a select few to the outside each year in a ceremony known as “The Choosing.” Aristial Stoneblood, orphan and occasional trouble maker, is one of this year’s Chosen. Along with his beautiful childhood friend, Kerys Weaver, Aristial leaves the safety of the Hollow and enters an unfamiliar world of shapeshifting swords, respawning monsters, and dangerous dungeons. It’s a new beginning, a place where intimate bonds can hold power and the price of life is paid in magical essence. A post-apocalyptic, dungeon crawling, fantasy harem adventure. WARNING: This book contains a significant amount of explicit sexual content and some adult emotional situations. Reader discretion is advised.

Good Intentions


Elliott Kay - 2011
    A midnight run through a cemetery to impress a couple of girls is hardly the stuff of legend, but Alex Carlisle longs to escape the crushing mediocrity of life after high school. Then he stumbles upon the ritual, and the cultists, and two bound and bloodied women. Alex intervenes and the ritual blows up in his face, leaving him bound to them both: Rachel and Lorelei, an angel and a succubus. It’s hardly the sort of challenge a guy can face with dignity when he still lives at home with his mom. Alex never imagined falling for an immortal demon seductress, or that he’d spend his nights dodging her co-workers, her old boss, and every other supernatural freak in Seattle. He never thought a woman like Lorelei could have a rival like Rachel, either. But then, nobody ever said adulthood would be easy. WARNING: “Good Intentions” contains explicit sexuality, violence, nudity, inappropriate use of church property, portrayals of beings divine and demonic bearing little or no resemblance to established religion or mythology, trespassing, bad language, sacrilege, blasphemy, attempted murder, arguable murder, divinely mandated murder, justifiable murder, filthy murder, sexual promiscuity, kidnapping, attempted rape, arson, dead animals, desecrated graves, gang activity, theft, assault and battery, panties, misuse of the 911 system, fantasy depictions of sorcery and witchcraft, multiple references to various matters of fandom, questionable interrogation tactics, cell phone abuse, reckless driving, consistent abuse of vampires (because they deserve it), even more explicit sexuality, illegal use of firearms within city limits, polyamory, abuse of authority, hit and run driving, destruction of private property, underage drinking, disturbances of the peace, disorderly conduct, internet harassment, bearers of false witness, mayhem, dismemberment, falsification of records, tax evasion, an uncomfortably sexy mother, bad study habits, and a very silly white guy inappropriately calling another white guy “nigga” (for which he will surely suffer).

Immortal Killers


Stuart Jaffe - 2016
    But when he finds himself on the wrong end of a knife, everything changes. He should have died. Instead, he acquires a unique ability - he harbors two souls in his body. If he dies, he loses one soul yet continues on. As long as he replenishes his second soul, he cannot be killed - he's immortal.But gaining immortality throws him into a world of government spies, crime syndicate couriers, and elite assassins. A world in which mankind is second class. A world where one has all eternity to master anything, and he is not the only one.Nathan wants nothing to do with such a dangerous world. He wants to help people, not destroy them. But when he tries to leave, he learns that freedom will be a lot harder to gain than he thinks.

Bob vs. The Cat


Kate Baray - 2016
    Bob's determined to defend his territory and save his human from his own foolishness--even if the task seems daunting. In his quest to protect Jack, Bob enlists the help of a close friend and tackles a nasty critter. Click to see how Bob defends against The Junk Shop's stealthy invader!