Welcome to the world of Jed Strait, where jetpacks and airships are as common as dark streets, flying bullets, and femmes fatales. This Dieselpunk series is set in an alternate version of late 1940s Los Angeles where killers lurk in the shadows, where a wealthy ex-actor leads a cult of people who believe in alternate worlds, where an old inventor has infinite tricks up his sleeve, and where Jed Strait just wants to find a way to stop feeling like such a fish out of water in a world that won’t let him forget he doesn’t fit in.
Book 1: The Blacktop Blues
Jed Strait made it through the war unscathed. Or at least, that’s what he thought. But now that he’s home, he’s not so sure, because he’s plagued by horrifying flashbacks. Only, they’re visions of events that never occurred.
All he wants is to reconnect with the woman he left behind and get on with his life, but according to the visions, that’s the worst thing he could do. If he follows Annabelle to LA, his nightmares could actually become real, but staying in New York with no Annabelle and no explanations will surely drive him mad.
Damned if he goes and damned if he stays, the only path forward is the one leading west, to the final crescendo of either marriage, misery or madness waiting for him at the end of a road that’s paved with The Blacktop Blues.
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Book 2: The Double-Time Slide
A chance encounter with a burlesque dancer drags Jed Strait into the sleazy alleys of Los Angeles, where he finds the police following a string of murders along a path that will lead them straight back to his robot assistant.
But Jed’s efforts to unravel the truth and clear Carmelita’s name are frustrated when his witnesses keep turning up dead. Is the killer onto him? Could Carmelita be playing him for a fool? It’s all on the line as Jed races to find the killer – whoever it is – before he himself becomes the sour note at the end of The Double-Time Slide.
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Book 3: The Shakedown Shuffle
Hollywood is a town full of secrets, and you’d think that would mean steady business for an investigator like Jed Strait. But when his trusty robot assistant goes AWOL just as his only case takes a deadly turn, Jed is forced to make a difficult choice: Save his business, or save Carmelita from the mysterious new boyfriend who seems too good to be real.
No matter how Jed plays it, somebody is bound to lose now that he’s riffing to The Shakedown Shuffle.
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Book 4: The Jetpack Boogie
He’s used to thinking fast and using his wits, but when it’s a whole new world he’s thrust into, does this private investigator have what it takes to survive?
Jed Strait has let his nemesis, Elsa Schwartz, get away one time too many. Now, he needs to track her down before she can do real damage—and that means following her into an alternate world where all the rules are different. But pursuing Elsa means putting everything else on hold—his business, his latest case, and the relationship with Sherise that’s now moving in surprising directions.
Worse, his hold on reality is starting to slip, and if he keeps chasing Elsa, he runs the risk of losing what little ability he has to cling to the world he’s made his own. Faced with the choice of letting Elsa rise to power in an unsuspecting world or chasing her down and losing his chance at happiness, Jed Strait can do nothing more than let the notes play out in a deadly dance called The Jetpack Boogie.
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Book 5: The Fedora Fandango
With his grip on reality growing flimsy, can a gritty PI protect the innocent from his Nazi nemesis?
Jed Strait has faced challenges before, but none of them had stakes as high as what he’s facing now. With his girlfriend Sherise in the crosshairs of a ruthless killer, all Jed wants is to lay a trap and dispatch his enemies.
But when his old friend on the LAPD calls in a favor Jed can’t refuse, he’s forced to split his energy between protecting Sherise and another innocent victim of a crime so serious that it threatens to blow the LAPD apart. Worse, Jed is starting to realize he has a new enemy to deal with, and it’s someone he can only see when looking into a mirror.
Does Jed save Sherise, the innocent victim, or himself? The answer lies somewhere in the complicated rhythms and fiery notes of The Fedora Fandango.
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Book 6: The Smoking Gun Serenade
There’s a man in the shadows who’s wearing his face. Can a private detective solve an impossible case and still keep himself out of trouble when his double might be manipulating him at every turn?
Jed Strait is trying to solve a 40-year-old cold case, but someone has worked long and hard to keep the killer’s identity a secret. If he fails, he loses out on the opportunity of a lifetime. The more he digs, though, the more trouble he gets into. Even worse, it’s not long before his friend Guillermo is in the crosshairs of powerful people who seem to know the secrets behind his technological wizardry.
With his and Guillermo’s fates on the line, Jed throws everything he’s got into fighting a shadowy foe who’s an expert at playing The Smoking Gun Serenade.
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Book 7: The Madhouse Mambo
Stripped of every resource, can a gritty PI solve the ultimate missing person case in a world gone mad?
When Jed Strait sees through the lies his latest client has told him, he figures he’s got the case just about solved. And solving the case should free him up to keep things going smoothly with his girlfriend—despite the bumps their newly found fame threatens to throw at them. But when an old nemesis resurfaces with an attack worse than anything Jed has faced before, he’s left with much bigger problems than a dishonest client and a grumpy girlfriend. With his very sanity and identity on the line, Jed has to call on all his skills if he’s going to stay in the world he calls home. If not, he may spend the rest of his life in a cell, humming a tune that he doesn’t even realize is called The Madhouse Mambo.
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The Cinderella Blues
Jed Strait doesn’t normally babysit, but when the Private Investigator is offered the job of making sure a socialite stays out of trouble, he takes the gig–partly for the money, partly because it will help build his reputation as a stand-up guy. Of course, if he blows it, his reputation and his fledgling business will be in the gutter.
To ensure his success, Jed relies on some high tech help, but technology has a way of going wrong. And when it does, he has to scramble to keep himself and the heiress out of all the trouble she’s looking forward to getting into.
“The Cinderella Blues” is a stand-alone short story set in the universe of The Crossover Case Files. It is available for free for subscribers to Richard’s newsletter.
