Casefile #1 - August 1951On a hot summer night a teenage boy is gunned down in the offices of Astor & Associates, Private Detectives. The only witness; Lucas Helath, a seedy shamus with more experience of divorce cases than murder. An obvious suspect, Lucas goes looking for the real killer - only to receive the impossible message; 'Harry Furie sends his regards'. Impossible, because his former partner is dead, lost in the Korean War.With the cops, mob and vengeful relatives all looking for answers, or at least a fall-guy, Lucas has until daybreak to bust this case wide-open. But the night holds more than human horrors for our hardboiled private eye, even one with a quick wit and quicker fists. Already haunted by his own imagination, Lucas finds himself confronting those who invoke Haitian spirits for power and profit. Voodoo? In LA? You'd better believe it, buster - or that's what someone wants him to think, and it's a damn convincing floorshow. For Lucas it's all one long bad dream, but as the hours crawl by and the bodies stack up, dawn seems as far away as ever. And it's hard to wake up in the city where night never ends.

Casefile #2 - November 1951Seedy shamus Lucas Helath is laying low in Orange County until the LAPD gets bored of busting his chops. Although officially cleared of any involvement in a string of recent murders those boys in Homicide really know how to hold a grudge. All he has to do is kick back and relax in the company of some low-rent showgirls - while ignoring a wise-cracking imp who's almost certainly a figment of his imagination. Almost. But Astor & Associates, Private Detectives, have a new case; Schumann the tailor has been kidnapped and his daughter is willing to pay big bucks if Lucas will handle the exchange. So it's back to the city where night never ends, where Haitian spirits haunt his waking dreams and the dead don't weep for the living.To rescue Papa Schumann Helath will have to stay one step ahead of the mob, the police, and the lure of easy money. All without dying, going crazy, or losing his soul in the process. So sometimes all you can do is roll the dice - and hope.

As he was on active duty during what is now referred to as 'The Fall', Sargent Gary Cooper contributed to the Earth Alliance Marine Corps archive on New Barstow, fragments of which still exist to this day. While some of the Sargent's recollections, assertions and - indeed - allegations concerning this period flatly contradict the official historical record, no attempt has been made to censor or correct his account, which remains verbatim. These, then, are his stories. (Polyakov-241, Chief Archivist, Second City, Earth)

Third Flatiron Anthologies presents 28 short science fiction/fantasy/horror stories in the original anthology, "InfiniteLives: Short Tales of Longevity." Tales range from dark to playful,featuring speculative fiction on the themes of longevity, lifeextension, and immortality, as well as a flash humor section, "Grins& Gurgles."An international group of new and established contributors includes Brian Trent, Sloane Leong, Matt Thompson, J. B. Toner, Larry C. Kay, David F. Schultz, D. A. Campisi, Russell Dorn, Samson Stormcrow Hayes, Ingrid Garcia, Maureen Bowden, Brandon Butler, Caias Ward, Leah Miller, Megan Branning, Robert Walton, K. G. Anderson, Louis Evans, John Paul Davies, David Cleden, Tom Pappalardo, Philip John Schweitzer, Martin M. Clark, Wulf Moon, Mack Moyer, Konstantine Paradias, E. E. King, and Sarah Totton. Edited by Juliana Rew.

Further eclectic offerings from a writer who cites Philip K. Dick, William Gibson and James Ellroy as his principle influences. In this volume you will find tales of a cyber Private Eye, gender-fluid larceny, the updated Mob and Space Marines in the snow - amongst others.So if you enjoy science fiction with a noir edge then sample an imagination perhaps best left behind his eyes, but one that will please some of the people, at least some of the time.

Casefile #3 - January 1952Things are looking up for Lucas Helath, lead investigator at Astor & Associates, Private Detectives. He's working both ends of a juicy divorce case and is back on 'speaking terms' with Sally Saks, the company receptionist. Even the LAPD have eased off, ignoring a recent string of crimes and misdemeanors. Life, as they say, is good.Then God shows up, wanting Lucas to track down the Devil, and kill him. Because where better for a biblical show-down than the City Of Angels? No sale, bud, except that this particular nutjob could send our seedy shamus to the big house over a string of Mob-related murders. Assuming, that is, he lives long enough to stand trial.So it's back to the mean streets of South Central, helped and hindered by the Imp, his imaginary sidekick. All Lucas has to do is not locate this Blues-singing Devil while he finds some way of sending his looney-tunes client to the funny-farm.Unless, that is, God really is calling the shots.

Yet more eclectic offerings from a writer who cites Philip K. Dick, William Gibson and James Ellroy as his principle influences. In this volume you will find tales of mistaken identity (with apologies to Hitchcock), imagination as nemesis, a National Socialist Europa plus poker as a way of life - and death.So if you enjoy science fiction with a noir edge then sample an imagination perhaps best left behind his eyes, but one that will please some of the people, at least some of the time.

An eclectic offering from a writer who cites Philip K. Dick, William Gibson and James Ellroy as his primary influences. In this volume you will find tales of boxing androids, virtual gaming (for keeps), a femme fatal reactor and the world (but not as we know it) in the bottom of a glass - amongst others.So if you enjoy science fiction with a noir edge then sample an imagination perhaps best left behind his eyes, but one that will please some of the people, at least some of the time.