Showing results by author "Jordan Castillo Price" in All Categories

For the past dozen years, Victor Bayne has solved numerous murders by interrogating witnesses only he can see - dead witnesses. But when his best friend Lisa goes missing from the sunny California campus of PsyTrain, the last thing he wants to find there is her spirit.

In 1960, a superfood was invented that made starvation a thing of the past. Manna, the cheaply manufactured staple food, is now as ubiquitous as salt in the world's cupboards, pantries and larders. Nelson Oliver knows plenty about manna. He's a food scientist–according to his diploma, that is. Lately, he's been running the register at the local video rental dive to scrape together the cash for his outrageously priced migraine medication.

Mark Hansen thought working as artist’s assistant would be glamorous, especially if that artist was a vampire. Black tie events, witty repartee, gracing the pages of the local style section. Didn’t happen. Not even once. Jonathan Varga is an enigma. True, he’s quiet, generous, and scrupulously polite. But he has zero social life, refuses to be interviewed or photographed, and insists he can only consume feline blood.

Fierce. Audacious. Independent. Curtis Ash can't be bothered to settle down. He's too busy enjoying his cushy job as a high-paid stylist, caught in a whirlwind of hookups, parties, and obscenely priced cocktails. The only snarl in an otherwise charmed life is the salon's hotshot colorist, Red Turner. Not only does Red put the whammy on customers and rake in all the big tips, he's oblivious to Crash's flirtation. But there will be plenty of time to win him over - or so Crash thinks.

Dixon Penn’s family wasn’t terribly shocked when he announced he was gay, but they were devastated to learn he’s the only one without the gift of spellcraft. Fortunately, that doesn’t stop spellcraft from reaching out to him. Dixon’s prospects have gone from bad to worse, but a contest at the biggest greeting card company in the tri-state area would be just the thing to turn his luck around. Yuri Volnikov is determined to keep the charming contestant out. But Dixon has always been a sucker for big guys with exotic accents, and he won’t take no for an answer.

Daniel was a hotshot memorysmith, a major innovator in the field of recreational memories - until his father, Big Dan, suffered a freak persistent memory that sent their business into a tailspin. Now Daniel labors behind the scenes, seeking only to cure the persistent false memory and salvage their failing shop. Elijah is the most talented mind in the memory industry, but his potential is wasted teaching beginners at the mall. When his cobbled-together gear projects him into one of Daniel’s memory programs, a colorful but challenging relationship sparks to life.

Dixon Penn has settled happily into his role as the go-to Scrivener to fix wonky Craftings. And his grown man-friend, Yuri Volnikov, is fitting in perfectly with the Penn family clan - and not just because the Seens he paints are brimming with magic. But Spellcraft has a way of keeping a guy on his toes! In a half-baked attempt to track down Spellcraft gone amok, Dixon and Yuri pull on their baking caps. Unfortunately, it takes more than a clever disguise to do the job.

Few people would willingly spend the night in a murder house, but Victor Bayne is up for the challenge. He’ll do whatever it takes to get a look at his permanent record, including going undercover in a townhouse where a recent death took place. Why not? There was no foul play involved, and as a psychic medium, he’d know if a ghost was creeping up on him. The whole “murder house” claim is just a product of a kid’s overactive imagination, and he’s confident he has the situation under control.

After years of frustration as a PsyCop, Victor Bayne reports for duty at the Federal Psychic Monitoring Program. As a fledgling agent, he’s ready to smoke out a few ghosts and be home each night in time for dinner. But is he prepared to add a professional dimension to his romantic partnership with Jacob Marks? Jacob has already established his territory in the Program - he’s competent, he’s respected, and he’s pretty much fearless. The last thing Vic wants to do is screw up in front of him.

Although Victor Bayne is a valued asset of the FPMP, he still vividly recalls his PsyCop days: the eye rolls, the nasty looks, and the occasional utterance of the words Spook Squad whenever he showed up on a scene. So he really should empathize with Howard Jibben, the weekend lab manager known as Heebie Jeebie.

Victor Bayne's job as a PsyCop involves tracking down dead people and getting them to spill their guts about their final moments. It's never been fun, per se. But it's not usually this annoying. Vic has just moved in with his boyfriend Jacob, he can't figure out where anything's packed, and his co-worker is pressuring him to have a housewarming party.

Victor Bayne honed his dubious psychic skills at one of the first psych training facilities in the country, Heliotrope Station, otherwise known as Camp Hell to the psychics who've been guests behind its razorwire fence.

Usually, when Victor Bayne is called upon to investigate a ghostly apparition, the “haunting” can be chalked up to a perfectly mundane cause. When he’s sent to check out some suspicious phenomena in small-town Iowa—and no one seems unduly alarmed—he’s hoping for more of a weekend getaway. Especially since he’s bringing along Jacob as his Stiff.

Victor Bayne, the psychic half a PsyCop team, is a gay medium who's more concerned with flying under the radar than in making waves. He hooks up with handsome Jacob Marks, a non-psychic (or "Stiff") from an adjacent precinct at his ex-partner's retirement party, and it seems like his dubious luck has taken a turn for the better. But then a serial killer surfaces who can change his appearance to match any witness' idea of the world's hottest guy.

Criss Cross finds the ghosts surrounding Victor getting awfully pushy. The medications that Victor usually takes to control his abilities are threatening to destroy his liver, and his new meds aren't any more effective than sugar pills. Vic is also adjusting to a new PsyCop partner, a mild-mannered guy named Roger with all the personality of white bread. At least he's willing to spring for the Starbucks.

Psychic medium Victor Bayne is well acquainted with pharmaceuticals, from the Auracel that blocks his ghosts to the Seconal that offers him a blissful night's sleep. But he's managed to steer clear of street drugs…so far. Jacob Marks has a medicine cabinet filled with every over-the-counter remedy known to man, but none of them are doing much for his mood - and his long, fruitless days of combing through records at The Clinic are taking a heavy toll.

Victor Bayne sees dead people for a living...and he sees them off the clock, too. After all, ghosts don't confine their appearances to a psychic medium's work hours. From the macabre to the mundane, from titillating to tender, these PsyCop shorts feature stolen moments between the novels. Get a glimpse of Vic's life with Jacob between cases, from both men's viewpoints.

Does everyone have a certain "type" they end up with, whether they want to or not? If Ray Carlucci's ex is anything to go by, Ray likes his men gorgeous, rebellious, and chock-full of issues. But now that Ray is single again, he has a shot at a fresh start - a very fresh start, since his tattoo shop was gutted by repo men and he can fit all his belongings in the trunk of a taxi.

Michael is a waif in eyeliner who's determined to wipe vampires off the face of the earth. Wild Bill's got the hots for Michael and will stop at nothing to go home with him. Forget about moonlit castles and windswept moors. These bad boys haunt all-night diners and cheap motels, cut-rate department stores and long, lonely stretches of the interstate.

Seasons: PsyCop Briefs, Volume 2 contains four novelettes and 14 short stories. This all-new novel-length collection begins right where book 12, Other Half, left off, with Vic and Jacob’s honeymoon. It then cycles through each season, highlighting various moments in the series with laughs, scares, tender domestic scenes, and of course, ghosts - then circles around to Other Half again.