In Shambles (A Scarlett Nightmare)

A talent-filled horror anthology featuring 50+ time national and international bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson of Dune, Star Wars, and X-Files fame! This anthology introduces his new venture, Dan Shambles Zombie P.I. Introduction by Kevin J Anderson Introducing Dan Shamble, Zombie PI Private detectives can be persistent fellows—even more so when they are the walking dead. Dan Chambeaux, affectionately (or not) called “Dan Shamble,” puts the P.I. back in R.I.P. A zombie, but still a gumshoe, Dan is back from the dead and back on the case, solving tough (or just strange) mysteries in the Unnatural Quarter. His partner Robin is a bleeding-heart human lawyer who wants to make sure the newly awakened monsters aren’t downtrodden by outdated laws, and he has a ghost for an office manager, who is also a former girlfriend (but “former” in the sense that she’s no longer alive, not that she’s no longer his girlfriend), and a rough-around-the-edges cop who is his BHF (Best Human Friend). Dan Shamble has plenty of cases, not least of which is figuring out who killed him, and who killed his girlfriend. There have been a lot of undead or unnatural detectives in fiction and film—vampire detectives, succubus detectives, demon detectives, ghost detectives, werewolf detectives, skeleton detectives. Heck, there have even been zombie detectives before (Tim Waggoner’s Nekropolis series comes immediately to mind, or Treat Williams in the 1980s film Dead Heat). But why is that a drawback? I mean, there have been any number of human detectives, too! It’s the story that counts. Zombies are relentless, and “dead guy private eye” seemed like a good idea that lent itself to plenty of humor, some of it quite unfortunate. (Being a corpse and a PI leaves Dan to open to very poor-taste jokes, such as being called a “stiff dick.”) I wanted the Dan Shamble series to be laugh-out-loud funny, a fast and entertaining read, and once I started exploring the world of the Unnatural Quarter, the cases suggested themselves, one outrageous situation after another: A mummy who is suing to be emancipated from the museum because he’s a person, dammit, not a piece of property; a skittish vampire who thinks somebody is trying to kill him because he sees wooden stakes everywhere; a witch seeking restitution after an incantation from a spellbook went horribly wrong and turned her sister into a fat sow, so she is suing the publisher for not running a “spell check”; an investigation into Jekyll Lifestyle Products and Necroceuticals—purveyors of toiletries, perfumes, soaps, and lotions that cater to monsters—because one batch of their special vampire shampoo was accidentally contaminated with garlic oil, which made all the vampires’ hair fall out. Yes, I had a lot of fun writing the series. I am a prolific writer with many bestsellers, best known for my doorstop-sized science fiction or fantasy epics, but I have never limited myself only to SF/F. My first novel, Resurrection, Inc., was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award given by the Horror Writers Association (it was a Gothic horror, science fiction, murder mystery), and I’ve written thrillers with Dean Koontz, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and Doug Beason. If you are looking for more Dan Shambles stories, you can find them on Amazon. "Slimy Underbelly" “Stakeout at the Vampire Circus,” “Road Kill,” “Naughty & Nice” (a zombie Christmas story, of course), “Role Model,” “Beware of Dog,” “The Writing on the Wall,” and now “Locked Room.”