The Ira Adler Mysteries ✑ The Simon Pearce Mysteries
New Releases
Calvin Sutter and Ira Adler return in this short, spooky tale set in Old New York. Get it today.
1885, East London
Abigail and Gideon are under siege. Noxious fogs have been bringing their clinic waves of indigent patients with inexplicable symptoms, telling wild tales of a demonic presence in the fog.
The Ira Adler Mysteries
The Affair of the Porcelain Dog
London 1889. For Ira Adler, former rent-boy and present plaything of crime lord Cain Goddard, stealing back the statue from Goddard’s blackmailer should have been a doddle. But as Ira’s search for the dog drags him back to the mean East End streets where he grew up, he discovers secrets about his own past, and about Goddard’s present business dealings, which make him question everything he thought he knew. Buy now.
London 1891. Former criminal Ira Adler has built a respectable, if dull, life for himself as a confidential secretary. He even sits on the board of a youth shelter. When the shelter’s landlord threatens to sell the building out from under them, Ira turns to his ex-lover, crime lord Cain Goddard, for a loan. But the loan comes with strings, and before he knows it, Ira is tangled up in them and tumbling back into the life of crime he worked so hard to escape. Buy now.
1895. For once, Ira Adler has it easy. He has money in his pocket, a comfortable arrangement with an undemanding young man, and no one’s punched, chased, or shot at him in years. Suddenly, an explosion turns everything upside down. Eager to leave London, Ira accompanies his friends to America to settle a family matter. But though a handsome lawman and a trip aboard a luxurious ocean liner provide welcome distraction, Ira soon finds himself embroiled in a plot that stretches from London’s back alleys to the dusty dirt roads of California. Buy now.
The Simon Pearce Mysteries
Constable Simon Pearce doesn’t believe in love. He doesn’t believe in monsters, either, though there seem to be a lot of them about. Whether it’s a ghost haunting a London churchyard where men seek men’s companionship, a phantom hound in Edinburgh that’s hell-bent on revenge, or a murdered businessman on a cross-country train who just won’t stay dead — the mysterious has a way of finding Pearce, whether he wants it to or not. Buy now.
This omnibus anthology contains the eight short stories that appeared in the Simon Pearce KU mini-volumes A Study in Spectres, A Case of Curses, Sanguine Solutions, and Arcane Adversaries.
The Sutter & Adler Mysteries
Calvin Sutter and Ira Adler return in this series of shorts, set in the 19th Century United States.
Sutter & Adler No. 1
Marshal Calvin Sutter is looking forward to a birthday dinner with his best guy, Ira Adler. But fate, and NYC’s Commissioner of Police, have other ideas. Buy now.
Standalones
Starvation and disease haunt the streets of 1820s Paris, while supernatural terror stalks the night. The once-famous police force is a shambles, its elite Bureau of Supernatural Investigations disbanded. Only Detective Inspector Elise Corbeau remains, spared by a shadowy protector for a purpose not even she knows. Buy now.
The Strange Case of the Big Sur Benefactor
Billiwack, CA, 1894. When translator Rosetta Stein comes across her rival, Bartholemew Vincent, under attack by weird, raven-headed man-beasts, she senses opportunity. She rescues him in exchange for a crack at the commission he stole from under her nose: an inscribed occult artifact found nearby. Meanwhile, a lady marshal has come to Billiwack, investigating rumors of strange, unlicensed weapons. When she finds her suspect, one Rosetta Stein, she can’t decide if she wants to kiss her or arrest her. Buy now.
The Kissing Gate (Blades of Justice)
If anyone deserved to be murdered, it was Davy Sowden. So when someone finally kills him, Dr. Elizabeth Bell is not surprised. But when she and her lover, Alice, become suspects in his murder, Eliza won’t just need to prove who did it, but also who didn’t. Simon Pearce makes his first appearance in this novella. Buy now.
Short Stories
The Trickster Codex appears in Women of the Dark Streets, Paranormal tales of Sapphic passion and intrigue. Winner of the Golden Crown Literary Society Award in the category of non-erotic anthology.
Golden Handcuffs appears in Death and the Detective from Elm Books, which I also edited.
Deadfall appears in Time’s Rainbow from Launch Point Press
Eliminating the Impossible appears in Tales of the Great Detectives, from Obverse Books.
Edited by Jess Faraday
A cupcake sounds so innocent: a bright, sugary confection fit for a children’s party or afternoon tea. But scrape off the frosting, and you might find something quite different underneath, such as a string of overdoses in people who don’t use drugs. An awful lot of suspects for an accidental death. Warm puppies and cold blooded killers. A pet python that knows a jerk when she sees one. A cupcake-themed beauty pageant that turns…sour.
Eight stories from eight talented authors.
Alternative Truths III: Endgame
Protest fiction from some of the finest names in SF&F. This is the final instalment of the Alternative Truths series, in which a host of talented storytellers and poets speculate about the different ways our current political choices might play out in the near future. Buy now.
This was the first anthology I put together for Elm Books. It’s a sampler of different types of detective fiction, from cozies to noir. The jewel of the collection, in my opinion, is a story from my dad (Storm of Mystery). It’s a fun little tome, and you should check it out. Buy now.
This was my second anthology with Elm Books. The stories inside are really top notch, and I’m not just saying that because one of mine made it in. Lee Mullins is the author to check out in this bunch. Buy now.
When I sent out the sub call for Death and the Detective, I specified NO supernatural stories. Writers being writers, I received a huge number of cover letters saying ‘I know you said no supernatural stories, but…’ Some of them were so good, we had to put together another anthology. As a bonus, this one has a delightful story from Charlie Cochrane. This was a finalist for a Killer Nashville Silver Falchion award for best anthology. Buy now.
‘Cosies’ are mysteries that feature (1) an amateur sleuth (2) no on-screen violence or sex. This anthology also required a tea theme. There are some wonderful stories in here, but my favorite is Miss Winser Will Pour by Albert Tucher. Buy now.
A series of steampunk murder mysteries. This was incredibly fun to edit, and, in my opinion, is the best of the anthologies I put together for Elm Books. My particular favorites in this bunch were Beneath the Holy City by Edward Stasheff and Borderman 49 by Darren Todd. Buy now.
Stories of supernatural romance. One story from this collection (Chimera’s Tail by Julianna Comyn) won the Aspen Gold Reader’s Choice Award in the short story category. Two others were finalists. Buy now.
Jess Faraday 