New short story "Grethel" available on the Kindle Store.

Grethel, my latest short story, is available now on the Kindle Store. Here is the product description:

Everyone knows the story of Hansel and Grethel, but what happened after the happily ever after? Joseph Duncan, author of The Oldest Living Vampire Saga, expands upon the fairy tale originally recorded and published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812. Grethel, a grown woman now, is haunted by her ordeal in the witch's cottage. The old crone who held her captive when she was a child is long dead, but the witch's spirit calls out to Grethel in her dreams. It is a siren's call that Grethel finds both terrifying and alluring, and when a handsome young nobleman seduces the woodcutter's daughter, Grethel finds herself torn between her desire for love and her thirst for the old crone's arcane knowledge. 

"Happily ever after" can have very different meanings, some sweet and hopeful... and some quite dark and frightful. Grethel is a fairy tale for adults, a grim fable about the seductive power of love and the allure of evil.

Lair of the Luciferians is OUT!

Get your copy today!

The Two-Fisted Private Dick is Back 

It's been two years since private investigator Dixon Peters saved the world from the Elder God Hellmouth. He's got a fancy new office uptown, a cute new secretary and more work than he can shake a stick at. So when millionaire industrialist Franklin G. Bumgarden III asks him to find his runaway children, Dix almost turns down the case. But Dix can't resist a puzzle, and the mystery of the missing Bumgarden kids looks like a real doozy. Within 24 hours of accepting the assignment, Dix finds himself knee-deep in ensorcelled housewives, lycanthropic assassins and demonic spies. In fact, everyone seems to know who he is and what he's looking for. 

A Change of Face 

The only way he's going to solve this mystery, Dix quickly realizes, is to go undercover. Deep undercover. Lucky thing his best friend Ratty is a shape-shifter! With new faces and fake identities, Dix and his secretary-cum-girlfriend set off to find the Bumgarden kids... and just maybe, he hopes, unravel the mystery of the enigmatic Luciferians before something really bad happens! 

Lair of the Luciferians is an action-packed detective novel, a tongue-in-cheek homage to the hard boiled tales of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, featuring one of the most unique private dicks ever created, the supernatural shamus Dixon Peters.

Reader raves for Menace of Club Mephistopheles: "An absolutely enjoyable read... for anyone who enjoys supernatural mysteries, or just plain weird fiction, I recommend giving it a try."... "An interesting mix of myth, magic and gumshoe detective. Starts right into the action and never lets up."... "I had been dragging my feet on buying this book because of the genre... not usually my type of story... what a mistake!"... "Not one for detective novels, I fell into this read as easy as watching Bogart and Bacall dance around a scene. Has tongue-in-cheek humor, sex (twisted), violence, and a taste of Mike Hammer... all blended into a H.P. Lovecraft nightmare - a nightmare complete with Apocalyptic visions and dramatic solutions."... "Very interesting take on the whole private eye genre. Loved the 1920's setting with the hard boiled PI and his slimy cohorts. Great stuff. Throw in a little HP Lovecraft for good measure, maybe spice it up with some magic and bam....instant fun."



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Coming Soon! Lair of the Luciferians

Just a note to inform fans of my private detective Dixon Peters, the new novel, Lair of the Luciferians, is almost finished and will be available in paperback and for the Kindle ereader very soon.

I tried to make this one much more of a mystery than the original, with a lot of crazy plot twists and double crosses, and of course, demons, magic and rampaging elder gods.

In Lair of the Luciferians, private eye Dixon Peters is hired by millionaire industrialist Franklin Bumgarden to find his missing children. Their father suspects the kids have been seduced by an Umbra film-flam artist named Ahura Mazda. Dix quickly begins to think there is a lot more going on than a simple missing persons case when he is attacked by a lycanthropic assassin who demands to know if Dix is working for a cult called the Luciferians. And to further complicate matters, Peters' arch enemy, Romeo Swansea, is up to his usual hijinks. Is he just looking for revenge, or is Swansea somehow involved in the disappearance of the Bumgarden kids?

I should have the final draft finished in about two weeks, so long as everything goes smoothly. I'll update this post when it is available for purchase.