Paradigms Lost

A tech-savvy private investigator in upstate New York discovers vampires are real, werewolves are worse, and the monster he's hunting has been using him as a tool. Paradigms Lost is urban fantasy with a hard-science backbone, a sardonic voice, and enough genuine dread to keep the lights on. MacGyver meets the X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Jason Wood runs Wood's Information Service out of a Troy, New York storefront, making a living by enhancing surveillance photos and digging up information other people can't find. He's good at his job, comfortable with his.45, and deeply skeptical of anything he can't verify with data. Then a dead body lands on his back doorstep with two puncture marks on its neck and not a drop of blood left in it, and his carefully maintained skepticism starts to crack. What follows pulls Jason into a world he has spent his whole career not believing in. This is a story about what happens when a man who trusts data above everything else is forced to confront facts that shouldn't exist. The monsters are real, the rules are not what the folklore says, and the person Jason trusted most may be the most dangerous thing in the city. Once you know what's out there, you can't un-know it. Perfect for fans of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files or Laurell K. Hamilton's early Anita Blake novels, with a sharper procedural edge and a protagonist who'd rather build a better sensor than wave a magic wand.