Book picks similar to
The Hammer Commission by John Van Stry


fantasy
urban-fantasy
must-have
paranormal-mystery-detective

Breaker


Isaac Hooke - 2019
    One man. A whole lot of monsters. Malem is a Breaker. He breaks the minds of beasts, exerting the steel vise of his will over their own, bending them to his wishes. His ability is severely limited in terms of the types of creatures he can control, and how many. Most monsters have always been beyond him. And then one day he accidentally breaks a monster girl. Doors begin to open for him faster than he thought possible… Note: this book contains harem elements. The main character certainly isn't shy around women, and the magic system is unique in ways you might not expect. Also, the story can get a tad dark in places.

Cloak of Dragons


Jonathan Moeller - 2019
     Except my boss is the High Queen of the Elves. And my errands for her involve spying on people. Or stealing things. Or hunting down monsters. Or, on occasion, killing people. But this time she wants me to solve a murder. And unless I find the killer, I’m going to be his next target…because dragons never forgive a murder.

West Coast Witch


Justen Hunter - 2013
    Then a PI showed up, asking about a missing ex of mine. A corpse and a vampire attack later, I've got a guardian dragging me further in to the world of magic with a gift of magic I never knew I had. Now I'm getting pulled into vampire politics, the arcane drug wars, and trying to get the hang of magic. Saving my own skin, much less anyone else's, is looking like a tall order now...

The Unnoticeables


Robert Brockway - 2015
    But they do watch over us. They watch our lives unfold, analyzing us for repeating patterns and redundancies. When they find them, the angels simplify those patterns, they remove the redundancies, and the problem that is you gets solved.Carey doesn’t much like that idea. As a punk living in New York City, 1977, Carey is sick and tired of watching the strange kids with the unnoticeable faces abduct his friends. He doesn’t care about the rumors of tarmonsters in the sewers, or unkillable psychopaths invading the punk scene—all he wants is drink cheap beer and dispense asskickings.Kaitlyn isn’t sure what she’s doing with her life. She came to Hollywood in 2013 to be a stunt woman, but last night a former teen heartthrob tried to eat her, her best friend has just gone missing, and there’s an angel outside her apartment.Whatever she plans on doing with her life, it should probably happen in the few remaining minutes she has left of it.There are angels. There are demons. They are the same thing. It’s up to Carey and Kaitlyn to stop them. The survival of the human race is in their hands.We are, all of us, well and truly screwed.

Afterlife


Marcus Sakey - 2017
    He wakes without a scratch. The building is in ruins. His team is gone. Outside, Chicago is dark. Cars lie abandoned. No planes cross the sky. He’s relieved to spot other people — until he sees they’re carrying machetes.Welcome to the afterlife.Claire McCoy stands over the body of Will Brody. As head of an FBI task force, she hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep in weeks. A terrorist has claimed eighteen lives and thrown the nation into panic. Against this horror, something reckless and beautiful happened. She fell in love… with Will Brody. But the line between life and death is narrower than any of us suspect — and all that matters to Will and Claire is getting back to each other.From the author of the million-copy bestselling Brilliance Trilogy comes a mind-bending thriller that explores our most haunting and fundamental question: What if death is just the beginning?

Accession of the Stone Born: Nine Realms Saga


Ken Lange - 2016
    Upon his return, he steps into a world he never knew existed and awakens dormant powers to discover that he’s one of the rarest beings in the supernatural community—a Stone Born. Now his very existence is a threat to the established order.A mysterious death pulls him in further, forcing him to face off against family and foe alike. Gavin must reconcile the past he knew with a strange world of magic, along the way encountering new creatures and dangers he’s never experienced.Will Gavin discover the truth? Or will this new world swallow him whole before he uncovers who he really is and who wants his uncle dead?

God Touched


John Conroe - 2010
    Chris Gordon is a rookie with the NYPD - one with a secret. In his spare time Chris is an exorcist without equal with a gift from God. But when he saves a beautiful girl from a demonic attack, he discovers there is more to fear than just demons. Finding himself surrounded by vampires, were weasels, and facing a giant short-faced bear, Chris struggles to stay alive, all while protecting his deadly new girlfriend. And then there's her over protective vampire mother!

Ghost Story


J.G. Jerome - 2020
    My name is Will. Apparently, I’m a necromancer. You would think that I might be a little bit more certain about something like that. Magical practitioners apparently go through a lot of training in an apprenticeship. Again with the apparently. In this case ‘apparently’ is completely appropriate because I didn’t do any of that. I was finally ready to renovate my house, so I was in a pinch for an apartment. I ended up in one that had a bunch of weird reviews. I did say I was in a pinch. It turned out that the apartment had a ghost. I sort of ...uh… well, maybe you should take a seat. I have quite a story to tell. I should warn you first - since my divorce, my social life has been rather...unconventional. By that I mean, I have more than one lady in my life. I have a friend that is a madame. I keep getting chased by zombies. One of my girlfriends likes to be tied up. My story is a slice of life, so I’m afraid you’re going to get a fairly significant amount of detail on my sex life while I struggle to get my brain wrapped around what it means to be a necromancer. If you’re likely to be offended by descriptions of sex, harem-like relationships, prostitution, the IT business, genatalia, project management, showering, domestic violence, cooking, going to the bathroom, women trash-talking each other, and probably about 150 things that I’ve become inured to… ...go have a good life somewhere else. If you’re not worried about any of that, then pull up a chair.

Spectral Detective


David Bussell - 2017
    The ghost of a dead celebrity needs his help to cross to the other side, but for that to happen, Jake will have to reckon with a cabal of sinister magicians and a soul-hungry demon.To complicate matters further, a minion of God has informed Jake that if he doesn’t succeed in his task, he’ll face arbitration at the pearly gates.And he won’t be getting a halo hung on his head.Does Jake have what it takes to walk his client into the light, or are two souls about to be lost forever? Mystery, the macabre, and caustic wit collide in this bizarre noir. Fans of Jim Butcher, Ben Aaronovitch, and Benedict Jacka will love this page-turning detective story with a supernatural twist. Praise for Spectral Detective: “Be prepared for action, danger, mystery, humor, surprises, and top shelf snarky repartee.” ★★★★★ An excellent, engaging read, full of humor and spooky goings-on.” ★★★★★ “Spectral Detective combines fantasy and noir detective stories into a perfect little blend.” ★★★★★ “The story is exciting, gory and has lots of twists and turns leading to plenty of surprises. I'm already eager for the next book.” ★★★★★

Royals


S. Dalambakis - 2018
    No matter what school she's in, she likes to fly under the radar. Hoping that senior year, at yet another new school, will be the same. Enter Zeke Montgomery, Graydon James, Maximus Anderson, and Lucian Harris. They enter Callyn's life like a Category 5 hurricane. All the boys recognize who she is the moment they see and scent her. She is their mate. All of their mates. Information comes to light. Callyn and the boy's futures will be changed. They will bring about a change. A change some do not want to happen. *Trigger Warning*- This book contains scenes of abuse. Mild cursing.

Dread Uprising


Brian K. Fuller - 2019
    By the divine promise of sacrifice, he awakened an Ash Angel with a new body, new powers, and a new war to fight. Cassandra, his temperamental trainer, tries to get him ready to battle Ghostpackers and Dreads, but it might be too little too late: for the first time in history, the Ash Angels are faltering against the fury of an evil more ancient than they are.While he fights to survive run-ins with a Sheid-hunted popstar and a gorgeous but dangerous Dread, Trace realizes his new life cannot erase the trauma of the old. Thrust onto the front lines of a violent war with ancient ambition, Trace finds that the deadliest demons are the ones lurking in his own mind.

Zombies Ate My Homework (Shingles Book 5)


John G. Hartness - 2018
    Wake his kid brother Andy up, get tormented on the school bus by the cool kids, try to avoid them while in school. Except it's Field Trip Day to the Science Museum, and now he's stuck with the meanest kids in seventh grade all day! But then the bus breaks down, so he doesn't even get to do anything cool at the science museum. It's okay, because an industrial accident brings science to Todd and his friends in the form of a zombie apocalypse. When the bus driver abandons them in the middle of a zombie outbreak, Todd, his brother Andy, his best friend Tarik, and their tomboy friend Mikayla take shelter in the first place they can find - an adult novelty store. What can you find in an adult toy store to fight zombies? Well…let's just say that the field trip was pretty educational, even if the kids never made it to the museum! Shingles is the comedy horror series from the gang that brings you the Authors & Dragons podcast. Like the podcast, these books are rated Not Safe For Anything.

Circle of Blood: The Complete Series


R.A. Steffan - 2018
    Literally. In another lifetime, six vampires lost their mates—and their mortality—to an unimaginable evil power. Despite the veil of death separating them, the strength of love draws them together across the ages. But now, if they can’t reunite with the reincarnations of their lost soulmates soon, it may just mean the end of the world. From the Big Easy to the ritual-steeped nation of Haiti and the ancient ruins of Saqqara in Egypt, follow the nightwalkers who are all that stand between humanity and chaos as they try to gather together the prophesied Council of Thirteen. Six vampires. Six reincarnated mates. And... the mysterious Other. Without the Council, the world will fall to darkness and become a wasteland haunted by the undead. But the demon who covets dominion over humanity will stop at nothing to thwart the vampires on their quest.In the eternal battle between Light and Darkness, love may be the greatest weapon... or the greatest weakness. * * * From USA Today bestselling author R. A. Steffan and fresh new voice Jaelynn Woolf comes a steamy paranormal romance series perfect for adult fans of vampire fiction. Get the complete Circle of Blood series today and dive into a heart-stopping, six-book journey that explores the power of love in a world gone mad with hate.

Dead Spots


Melissa F. Olson - 2012
    Their pact doesn’t sit well with Dash, the city’s chief bloodsucker, who fears his whole vampire empire is at stake. And when clues start to point to Scarlett, it’ll take more than her unique powers to catch the real killer and clear her name.

Breaking Gods


D.J. Molles - 2019
     Five hundred years later, things haven’t gotten much better for humans. The demigods that were left behind to guard over humanity have been using them as fodder for an endless civil war between themselves, and the humans just go on dutifully slaughtering each other, battle after battle. It’s not all bad, though. Perry McGown makes his living off those bloody, stinking battlefields. He works on a crew that reclaims all the spent shell casings. They reload them into new cartridges, and then sell them in towns. It’s a good gig, it puts a few gold coins in Perry’s pocket, and best of all, no one asks too many questions about his past. Which is ideal, because if anyone found out that he was a deserter from the war, he’d be executed for heresy. Then some bad blood between crewmembers leads to one man with his brains dashed in, and Perry heading for the hangman’s noose. Through a flurry of gunfire and blood, Perry manages a narrow escape, but only with the help of the two people he likes least: A girl named Teran that asks far too many questions about his past; and an ex-legionnaire named Stuber, whose penchant for gleeful violence brings back bad memories for Perry. On the run and pursued by a ruthless demigod, Perry is forced to confront the demons of a past that he thought he’d left behind him--and learn truths about himself and his family that have been buried for decades. But the more Perry learns, the more dangerous his journey becomes. Because the truth about Perry could break the gods.