13 Supernatural Detectives—from Nancy A. Collins, Kevin J. Anderson, more
Ghosts in your attic? Zombie problems in your neighborhood? We got options for you…
“I had two goals with this anthology: 1) promote weird detectives, and 2) expand the subgenre [with] new characters.”
Supernatural detective fiction combines crime and mystery stories with elements of horror and fantasy fiction. While a conventional detective would be expected to explain away the extranormal, a supernatural detective crosses paths with the actual stuff—monsters, ghosts, vampires, zombies, what have you. Some of these detectives are even monsters themselves.
While a number of anthologies introduce readers to these problem solvers, we start now with Dead Detectives Society (Monstrous books). It’s lineup is impressive enough we had to give it a lot of space.
We also share links to some more anthologies below. Plus links to more articles that explore the history of this mashup and offer more characters to meet.
Dead Detectives Society #1 | Editor James Aquilone | Monstrous Books
Throughout history and infinite dimensions, there exists a secret group of supernatural investigators operating on the fringes of society, lurking in the shadows, working strange cases with little reward. They are hardboiled zombies and ghosts, mythological creatures, ass-kicking vampires, tortured humans, and uncanny sleuths whose normal is the bizarre and weird.
Dead Detectives Society #1 includes short detective fiction and their weird investigators from authors Nancy A. Collins (Sonja Blue), Kevin J. Anderson (Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I.), Jonathan Maberry (Monk Addison), Steve Niles (Cal McDonald), Nancy Holder & Alan Philipson (Johnny Fade), David Avallone (Nick Carter—well, in a way), Tim Waggoner (Matt Richter), and James Aquilone (Dead Jack, Zombie Detective), plus stories from John Jennings, Lisa Morton, Jeff Strand, Rena Mason, Joe R. Lansdale & Kasey Lansdale.
“Half of [these detectives] are maybe characters you already know,” publisher and editor James Aquilone told Comic Book Couples Counseling. “The other half are new stories with these new weird detectives. I want to get more writers to create these types of characters. We want to expand the genre.”
He shared with Cemetery Dance his goals for Dead Detectives Society.
“I had two goals with this anthology: 1) promote weird detectives, and 2) expand the subgenre by having writers create new characters. Half of the anthology features established characters… And then we’ve added new characters. I’ve worked with all the writers before and I’m a big fan of them all and their characters.”
Aquilone told Comicon that one of the inspirations for Dead Detective Society was when he’d worked on a graphic novel celebrating the classic TV monster investigator show Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
“I had so much fun putting that project together that I wanted to do more stories in that vein. Stories that combined horror and mystery and occasionally humor. I also wanted to showcase my favorite zombie and vampire and whatever detectives as well as to have writers create new characters. I’m hoping we can expand this subgenre and continue to publish the adventures of the characters in this book and add more characters as we go along.”
The publisher was happy with the new characters in the anthology.
“I’m very excited about Saul When, Jin G. Fox, and the reanimated Nick Carter,” Aquilone told The Beat. “Along with the established characters… I wanted Dead Detectives Society to include new characters or new twists on old characters that could be further explored in future anthologies and hopefully spawn their own franchises. I’m very fortunate to have their debuts in this book, and I look forward to their next chapters.”
Find Dead Detectives Society #1 online:
Bookshop.org (which also supports your local bookstore!)
Monstrous Books (signed edition)
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Here’s more about the stories in Dead Detectives Society…
Nancy A. Collins
“Last-Known Photo,’ A Sonja Blue Story
Punk vampire/vampire hunter Sonja Blue helps a single mother find her missing son.
Horror author Nancy A. Collins has written several novels and novellas and a number of short stories. This includes her Sonja Blue series, featuring a half-human, half-vampire vigilante. The first book in that series, 1989’s Sunglasses After Dark, is considered one of the first Urban Fantasy novels. She also wrote the Southern Gothic collection Knuckles and Tales, and the YA Vamps series.
Collins has also been the writer on several comic book series—including Swamp Thing, Jason vs. Leatherface, Predator: Hell Come A’ Walkin’, and the one-shot Dhampire: Stillborn.
She’s won a Bram Stoker Award and a British Fantasy Award. She’s also been nominated for the Eisner, John W. Campbell Memorial, and International Horror Guild Awards.
“Growing up, there were virtually no strong female characters in any medium,” Collins told Horror News Network. “With Sonja, I wanted her to be a believable female character with the necessary confidence to get the job done. She’s there to take care of business. I also wanted to delve into the idea of female anger and rage which probably goes back to childhood and the fear of the mother as the disciplinarian. Mom was always the one who ended up dealing out the punishments. Sonja is a character that is female, but the focus of the narrative is not on her being a female.”
Kevin J. Anderson
“Mystery Meat: a Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. Adventure”
Dan Shamble is back from the dead and back on the case. In the Unnatural Quarter, inhabited by all manner of unusual people, Dan has to solve his wormiest case yet, when Mama Fly’s children go missing—and secretive industrial magnate Gold Boris launches a brand new “mystery meat” product that is taking the unnaturals by storm.
Kevin J. Anderson is the author of like 200 books—as well as an editor, publisher, and college instructor. (So he has lots to do.) Many readers know him because of his books and comics for the likes of X-Files, Star Wars, Dune, Predator, Superman, Batman, and more. (Plus all that original fiction, which has included steampunk, space opera, epic fantasy, horror and dark fantasy.)
But to Monster Complex®, our favorite stuff from Kevin J. Anderson’s are his hysterical mysteries starring Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I.
Originally, detective Dan Chambeaux was a human private investigator serving in the Unnatural Quarter, where all the monsters have gathered in hopes of finding normal lives. Chambeaux was killed in a back alley when a case went sour—but even death won’t keep a good detective down.
This zombie detective has now starred in several novels and dozens of short stories. (Including, as of this writing, a brand-new one that was just Kickstartered.)
“I’ve written a lot of books, from Star Wars to X-Files to Dune, but one of my favorite characters is Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I,” Andserson says. “He’s funny, he’s clumsy, he’s charming. Whenever I’m writing something new in the series, my wife says ‘You must be working on Dan Shamble, because you’re always in a good mood.’”
Jonathan Maberry
“Dead to Me (A Monk Addison Adventure)”
Monk finds himself temporarily trapped inside a madman’s thoughts as he hunts for the victim of a murder.
“Monk Addison is a private investigator whose skin is covered with the tattooed faces of murder victims,” the author says. “He is a predator who hunts for killers, and the ghosts of all of those dead people haunt his life. Some of those faces have begun to fade, too, destroying the very souls of the dead.”
Named one of the Today’s Top Ten Horror Writers, best-selling and award-winning author Jonathan Maberry has written LOTS of books and short stories for several genres. The current editor of Weird Tales magazine, he’s also an anthology editor, comic book writer, writing teacher, and more.
The winner of an Inkpot, plus five Bram Stoker Awards, his characters include at least two supernatural detectives—tattooed Monk Addison, as well as Sam Hunter, Werewolf-Detective.
Maberry has also written about many other characters as well. Maybe you saw his fiction for X-Files, Hellboy, Sherlock Holmes, or Kolchak: The Night Stalker. (Or many, many others.)
Maberry has also edited many short story collections. In addition to issues of Weird Tales, this also includes anthologies like The Big Bad Book of Kaiju, Shadows & Verse, Joe Ledger, Aliens: Bug Hunt,Baker Street Irregulars, Hardboiled Horror, and many more.
Steve Niles
“Cal McDonald: Blood and Fur”
Cal McDonald and Mo’Lock discover an old ghost town in the middle of the desert—as well as a pack of furry fiends.
Steve Niles—who writes prose and comic books—is one of modern writers bringing horror comics back to prominence. In addition to Criminal Macabre, his work also include 30 Days of Night, Simon Dark, Mystery Society, Frankenstein Alive, Alive, Monster & Madman, and Batman: Gotham County Line.
The Cal McDonald AKA Criminal Macabre stories follows the supernatural detective with one foot in the real world, and one in the world of magic. For Cal, the horrors we all dream about are kept at bay through almost constant drugs to numb the pain—but never erase it. Cut from the same mold as the famous detectives of Chandler, Hammett and Spillane, Cal McDonald—whether he likes it or not—is all that stands between us and the nightmare world just outside our vision.
“Cal initially came out of my love of Raymond Chandler and Hunter S. Thompson,” the author says. “My first couple attempts were, well, pretty cliche and weird. I added monsters and a ghoul and things started to fall into place.”
Nancy Holder & Alan Philipson
“Dead Drop: A Johnny Fade Story”
Johnny Fade is called into action after the L.A. mob forces movie star Rachel Alcina to act in a bio-pic about Oso the Maneater, a professional wrestler and in-the-ring murderer. Rachel knows it will end her career—her medium told her so…
Johnny Fade is a corrupt, dead Hollywood homicide detective stuck in the noir purgatory of Dead Town, crossing back over to Tinsel Town to solve cases for the living, and to find out how he can stay out of Hell. Creators Nancy Holder and Alan Philipson are writing prose stories and also comic books/graphic novels for Johnny Fade.
Holder’s work has appeared on many bestseller lists. A six-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, she received a Scribe Award from the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers for Best Novel, and was subsequently named a Grand Master by that organization in 2019. She also received a Young Adult Literature Pioneer Award from RT Booksellers.
In addition to her own thriller and horror characters, Holder has also written official tie-in fiction related to such known brands as Teen Wolf, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Saving Grace, Hellboy, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Smallville, Green Hornet, Domino Lady, and Zorro. She’s novelized movies like Crimson Peak, Ghostbusters, and Wonder Woman. She’s also sold approximately 200(!) short stories, plus as essays on writing, popular culture, and horror.
Philipson—writing under many pseudonyms—has published more than 130 novels. His titles regularly hit the Amazon and Barnes & Noble topseller lists in the Men’s Adventure and Science Fiction/Adventure categories.
David Avallone
“Nick Carter: Recalled to Life”
1960s master detective Nick Carter is reanimated returns to action as a secret agent to battle the mysterious Professor Citrine.
So—this is really interesting—for this reanimated Nick Carter, David Avallone is revising the character who appeared in the Nick Carter-Killmaster novels written by his father.
Carter was initially created as a dime novel private detective all the way back in the 1880s. In the more than 100 years since then, the character has continued to appear in a number of formats.
Cut to the 1960s, and the James Bond craze led to Carter being revised for a new espionage series where he was counterspy Killmaster. There were like 260 novels in that series. Although the Nick Carter books were always published with one pen name, there was an actual team of authors writing those books.
One of those authors was Michael Avallone (1924-1999), who actually wrote many tie-in novels and novelizations of TV shows and movies. Under the pen name “Nick Carter,” Avallone wrote a number of the Nick Carter novels.
Today, his son, David Avallone—who has lots of writing credits of his own—has picked up his dad’s legacy for the Dead Detectives anthology. Carter has been reanimated—and returns to action as a secret agent.
“This anthology gave me a chance to write a character my father rebooted in 1964,” David Avallone told The Beat, “and bridge together two pieces of detective genre history that have been begging to be connected ever since… in a short story that should remind readers of the particular pulp fiction genius and madness of Michael Angelo Avallone.”
Tim Waggoner
“Half A Monster Is Better Than None”
Zombie P.I. Matt Richter works the very mean streets of Nekropolis, an other-dimensional city full of monsters, ghosts, and witches.
Matt’s latest client is a shifter with a unique problem. She’s a were-thylacine—an exceptionally rare breed—and someone has stolen her animal form, making it impossible for her to change shape. Even if Matt can figure out who stole her shifter form and why, how can he possibly reunite his client’s two halves and make her whole again? Good thing Matt’s already dead, or this case just might kill him.
With more than 60 novels and several short story collections, Tim Waggoner writes original dark fantasy and horror. He’s also written tie-ins fiction for a number of famous brands—including X-Files, Conan the Barbarian, Doctor Who, Supernatural, Grimm, Alien, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Transformers, and more.
Waggoner in 2017 won a Stoker for his novella The Winter Box. Twice he’s won the Scribe Award from the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers. For years, he’s served as a mentor for Horror Writers Association (HWA)—and, in 2015, was given the Mentor of the Year Award.
He also writes about writing—and wins awards for that, too. Waggoner’s horror-writing guide Writing in the Dark won the Bram Stoker Award in 2021, his article “Speaking of Horror” also won Stoker in 2021, and Writing in the Dark: The Workbook won a Stoker in 2023.
“You can’t keep a good zombie P.I. down,” Waggoner says. “Get ready for more magic, monsters, mystery, and mayhem on the very dark streets of Nekropolis!”
James Aquilone
“The Case of the Ravenous Werewolf” by James Aquilone
Dead Jack has a dilemma on his hands when a creepy werewolf asks the zombie detective to kill him. The fairy-dust-addicted P.I. must decide to become an assassin or allow dozens of innocent fairies to get devoured.
Winner of a Bram Stoker Award and two Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards, James Aquilone is a busy horror fictioneer. His own fiction includes the Dead Jack books, with irreverent horror + fantasy mysteries starring a zombie detective and his homunculus sidekick.
“I love detective stories—I also love zombies,” Aquilone told us here at Monster Complex®. (We interview people, too, you know.) “So, I mashed them together and the idea grew and grew until there was this huge, crazy world called Pandemonium.”
An author, editor, and publisher, James Aquilone writes the Dead Jack, Zombie Detective stories; has edited such collections as Kolchak Meets the Classic Monsters and Shakespeare Unleashed; and, as the owner of Monstrous Books, has published such titles as Creepshow: 13 Tales of Terror and, well, Dead Detectives Society.
He talked to Comic Book Couples Counseling about that time he created his zombie detective:
“I thought I was incredibly original and that there was nothing like this. Years later, when I finally decided to try to get it published, I said, Let me Google this.”
He quickly found out that there were at least two other zombie detectives at work in their own own horror mysteries—written by Tim Waggoner and Kevin J. Anderson.
“Years later, when I got to work with Kevin and Tim, I thought it would be a cool idea to put our characters in the same book,” Aquilone told Fanbase Press. “I also wanted to expand this small subgenre of zombie/weird detectives. Dead Detectives Society aims to bring readers the best weird detectives and to encourage writers to create new ones that hopefully will find their way into the pages of future Dead Detectives Society editions.”
John Jennings
“The Ghost Thieves”
Saul When: Halloween Detective gets hired by a haunted house whose favorite ghosts have been stolen. Saul must use his Halloween tricks to get to the bottom of the ghost-napping and face whatever entity that has the power to actually steal a spirit from its spectral home.
John Jennings is a professor, author, graphic novelist, curator, Harvard Fellow, New York Times Bestseller, 2018 Eisner Winner, and all-around champion of Black culture. He’s the Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside (UCR).
On top of which, Jennings didn’t just write a story for Dead Detectives Society—the Hugo Award-winner also made the striking artful cover.
“I was so honored to be asked to be a part of such a groundbreaking collection,” Jennings says. “The premise is so unique and it’s filled with some of the greats in the genre! The anthology sports my original cover art and my story centers on a new character of mine. The collection features Saul’s very first adventure.”
Lisa Morton
“The World Is a Secret”
What would happen if a monster created from dead parts was resurrected without memory in 1970s Los Angeles? Thomas Quinn is determined to solve the mystery of his creation and joins forces with a sympathetic detective to find out who made and then abandoned him, and why.
An author, screenwriter, and Halloween expert, Lisa Morton’s work was described by the American Library Association’s Readers Advisory Guide to Horror as “consistently dark, unsettling, and frightening.” Famous Monsters called her “one of the best writers in dark fiction today.”
Her debut novel, 2010’s The Castle of Los Angeles, appeared on numerous “Best of the Year” lists. Her horror fiction has appeared in dozens of anthologies and magazines, including The Mammoth Book of Dracula, Dark Delicacies, The Museum of Horrors, and Cemetery Dance.
A six-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award®, Morton has also recieved a Black Quill Award, as well as the 2012 Grand Prize from the Halloween Book Festival
Her book The Halloween Encyclopedia (now in an expanded second edition) was described by Reference & Research Book News as the “most complete reference to the holiday available.”
In Morton’s story for Dead Detectives:
What would happen if a monster created from dead parts was resurrected without memory in 1970s Los Angeles? Thomas Quinn is determined to solve the mystery of his creation and joins forces with a sympathetic detective to find out who made and then abandoned him, and why…
Jeff Strand
“Snippy”
Timothy Perkins, who calls the greatest detective who ever lived, is hired to get a man'shis client’s dog back.
The Bram Stoker Award-winning author of like 60 books, Jeff Strand identifies himself as a horror writer—with jokes. [https://www.monstercomplex.com/blog/interviewing-jeff-strand-the-funniest-person-in-horror] “I’m kind of known as ‘the horror comedy guy’ and a lot of horror-thriller type stuff. But, generally, I self-identify as a horror writer who puts lots of jokes in the books.”
His titles include Your Body Will Never Be Found, Blister, Demonic, Autumn Bleeds Into Winter, I Have a Bad Feeling About This, Dweller, and The Odds, as well as newer titles Terror from the Cave (Eek!), and Wolf Hunt. Several of his books are in development as movies.
As Cemetery Dance magazine said, “No author working today comes close to Jeff Strand’s perfect mixture of comedy and terror.”
(Of course, one of our personal favorites is Strand’s novelization of horror comedy classic Attack of the Killer Tomatoes—written 40 years after the movie happened. And we were thrilled to talk with him about it.)
For Strand’s story in Dead Detectives Society:
Timothy Perkins incorrectly promotes himself as the greatest detective who ever lived. His most marketable skill is his ability to wander into dangerous situations, because every time he’s killed he comes back to life. This advantage is offset by his occasional glimpses into The Void, where he screams in uncontrollable terror because there is no existence beyond our current realm. Hopefully he can get his client’s dog back…
Rena Mason
“Jin G. Fox, Death Investigator: Vixen Screams”
Slain after receiving the dreaded fourth tail, the unrelenting vixen, Jin G. Fox is given another chance to earn her full powers back, as well as immortality, from the Queen Mother of the West by becoming a Death Investigator tasked with cleaning up 1900s San Francisco to make way for a “new” Chinatown.
Rena Mason is a dark speculative fiction author of Thai-Chinese descent, and the Bram Stoker Award® winning author of The Evolutionist and “The Devil’s Throat.” She’s a member of the Horror Writers Association, Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, and the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (among others).
Jin G. Fox, Death Investigator is based on a character from Mason’s story in the award-winning anthology Black Cranes.
“Being a part of the Dead Detectives Society means the world to me,” Mason says. “There's nothing more exciting, fun, and humbling than creating a character who gets to play in the sandbox alongside legends.”
Joe R. Lansdale & Kasey Lansdale
“Mr. Cricket”
As if high school wasn’t hard enough, being dead doesn’t make it any easier. From the small backwoods of East Texas to the bright lights of Hollywood, California, the ordinary and the extraordinary come together to solve the peculiar murder of Sarah J. Riley. A compelling look into the space between our worlds, our heroine must find answers before she is lost to the mystery and the lore of Tinseltown forever.
Joe R. Lansdale is the author of 50 novels and 400(!) shorter works, including stories, essays, reviews, film and TV scripts, stage plays, introductions and magazine articles, as well as a book of poetry. His work has been made into films, animation, comics, and he has won numerous awards including the Edgar, Raymond Chandler life time award, numerous Bram Stoker Awards, Lifetime Horror Award, and the Spur Award.
Kasey Lansdale is an author, musician, and small business owner.
Official author website (Joe R. Lansdale)
Official author website (Kasey Lansdale)
Find Dead Detectives Society #1 online:
Bookshop.org (which also supports your local bookstore!)
Monstrous Books (signed edition)
More supernatural detective collections
Dark Detectives: An Anthology of Supernatural Mysteries
Includes an eight-part story by Kim Newman serialized through the anthology—and the debut of a brand-new character! Plus stories from several more authors, including Clive Barker and Brian Lumley.
Available from:
Bookshop.org (which also supports your local bookstore!)
Weird Tales Magazine No. 368: Supernatural Detective Issue
Special themed issue of the legendary magazine includes stories from Jonathan Maberry, Rachel Aukes, James Aquilone, Jennifer Brody, Kevin J. Anderson, Carina Bissett, Jeff Strand, Colleen Anderson, and more.
Available from:
Bookshop.org (which also supports your local bookstore!)
Libro.fm (which also supports your local bookstore!)
The Occult Detective Megapack: 29 Classic Stories
Featuring classic stories from the early days of supernatural detectives, this collection goes back to the beginnings of the category. Including stories from legendary authors like Robert E. Howard, Seabury Quinn, Edmond Hamilton, Manly Wade Wellman, Fitz-James O’Brien, Sheridan Le Fanu, Mary Fortune, and more.
Available from:
Bookshop.org (which also supports your local bookstore!)
More from Monster Complex®
Ghosts in your attic? Zombies in your neighborhood? We got options for you. “I had two goals: 1) promote weird detectives, and 2) expand the subgenre [with] new characters.”