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Lucius Fogg #1
Deadly Creatures
Jimmy Doyle is an honorable man who took a bullet for his country. On his return home to 1950s New York City to become a private detective, he accepts a position with Lucius Fogg, a preeminent occultist. Fogg dabbles in solving macabre crimes, and as his legman, Doyle is thrust deep into the world of the supernatural. He often has to face danger alone, for Fogg never, ever steps outside of his home.
When the police ask for Fogg’s help with a series of murders, Doyle is flung head-first into trouble. The killings are seemingly unrelated—except in the way they’re committed. Though each has multiple witnesses and confessed suspects, Fogg sees something far more sinister pulling the strings. As the pieces start coming together, Doyle discovers an underground fight club where the supernatural brawl to the death. Who is behind the matches that threaten the very balance of the city and how is the mysterious new woman in his life involved? Doyle will put his own life on the line to discover the truth even if it means going against Fogg himself.
The first in a new series of novels from comic book writer Dan Wickline.
When the police ask for Fogg’s help with a series of murders, Doyle is flung head-first into trouble. The killings are seemingly unrelated—except in the way they’re committed. Though each has multiple witnesses and confessed suspects, Fogg sees something far more sinister pulling the strings. As the pieces start coming together, Doyle discovers an underground fight club where the supernatural brawl to the death. Who is behind the matches that threaten the very balance of the city and how is the mysterious new woman in his life involved? Doyle will put his own life on the line to discover the truth even if it means going against Fogg himself.
The first in a new series of novels from comic book writer Dan Wickline.
196 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 10, 2011
4 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Dan Wickline
183 books24 followersDan Wickline is a writer/photographer/bassist living in Los Angeles, CA. In comics he has written for the 30 Days of Night and Grimm Fairy Tales franchises as well as the on-going ShadowHawk and 1001 Arabian Nights: The Adventures of Sinbad. He's also written prose for characters such as The Phantom, The Green Hornet and his own creation Lucius Fogg. As a photographer, Dan has been featured in numerous gallery shows as well as a collection of his black & white work published under the title Private Skin. Dan had a brief moment in the Hollywood spotlight playing a corpse on the hit series Dexter, but now spends his spare time as the bassist for the newly formed metal band Murder Most Foul. Dan is happily married to his lovely wife Debbie, who has an amazing capacity to put up with the insanity that is his life.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 24, 2019
Dan Wickline’s urban fantasy series is built upon the Nero Wolfe model established by Rex Stout. Lucius Fogg is a master sorcerer—perhaps the greatest alive in post World War II New York City—but he has one significant restraint on his power. If he takes even one step outside of his home, he will die. To get around this difficulty, he employs private detective Jimmy Doyle to do his legwork for him as he investigates supernatural phenomenon that catch his interest.
Jimmy Doyle is a World War II vet who took a bullet to the head and spent three months in a coma. He only woke up because Fogg sent a magical pendant to him which a nurse hung around his neck. Now he has a metal plate in his head (more on this later) together with a strong sense of justice. He’s also got a lot of attitude that makes you wonder why he doesn’t get slugged more by the men he provokes.
The final piece of background that is critical to understanding this series is that most Americans do not believe in the supernatural even though quite a few of those creatures live among them.
The novel opens with a peculiar instance of a man following Doyle, wanting Lucius Fogg’s help, but panicking and running before Doyle can find out what he wants. He darts into the street and gets hit by a van seemingly closing the strange encounter. A few days later, women start to die in a peculiar fashion and a police detective who has reluctantly come to know that the supernatural is real, asks Fogg for his help. That mystery takes up half the novel and is thoroughly enjoyable, pulling all the early threads together. In resolving the case we get introduced to the supernatural world. But in closing the case, questions Fogg does not want to pursue get opened and Doyle’s sense of justice leads him to quit Fogg’s employ so he can pursue justice on his own.
This is where things get very interesting. We learn that the relative peace that New York City enjoys was built upon a compact by Fogg, the chief vampire and werewolf of New York, and a famous hunter who had been trying to kill off all the supernatural creatures in the city. This compact kept NYC from breaking out into total war at the price of Old Town (about thirty blocks of the city) being turned over to the supernaturals. New Yorkers believe this is an area of such tremendous crime that not even the police go there, but those in the know understand the truth. Now, the compact appears to be in violation as werewolves are being seen killing people outside of Old Town.
The resolution of this mystery is very exciting, but there are some problems with it which I’m going to discuss next. So be forewarned, SPOILERS are ahead.
The compact was made necessary by the tremendous immigration of supernaturals to New York City from elsewhere—especially Europe. All werewolves and vampires in the city came to Old Town when Fogg cast the spell that formed the compact—basically limiting those creatures (and their progeny) to Old Town. This ignores the fact that it is immigration which was helping to cause the problem and presumably would continue after the compact was made. New immigrants would not be bound by the compact but apparently this never occurs to anyone. It’s especially troubling that no one even considers this possibility when they start finding new werewolves operating in the city. This is a serious flaw in the plot.
It also appears that new vampires and werewolves have been creates since the compact but this would seem to be impossible under the terms of the compact. Maybe I’m incorrect about this, but it struck me as a significant inconsistency.
The next complaint may be unfair, but the reader is constantly reminded that Jimmy Doyle has a metal plate in his head. Unfortunately, the plate is forgotten when Jimmy gets infected with lycanthropy and transforms. I don’t know that this would cause problems, but it would seem that the plate would have to be moved around by transforming in and out of wolf form and this is never addressed.
These are small complaints but they bothered me as I first read and thought about the book. That didn’t stop me from rereading the novel, however. If you like a good mystery with some supernatural elements, you’ll enjoy this series.
If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.
Jimmy Doyle is a World War II vet who took a bullet to the head and spent three months in a coma. He only woke up because Fogg sent a magical pendant to him which a nurse hung around his neck. Now he has a metal plate in his head (more on this later) together with a strong sense of justice. He’s also got a lot of attitude that makes you wonder why he doesn’t get slugged more by the men he provokes.
The final piece of background that is critical to understanding this series is that most Americans do not believe in the supernatural even though quite a few of those creatures live among them.
The novel opens with a peculiar instance of a man following Doyle, wanting Lucius Fogg’s help, but panicking and running before Doyle can find out what he wants. He darts into the street and gets hit by a van seemingly closing the strange encounter. A few days later, women start to die in a peculiar fashion and a police detective who has reluctantly come to know that the supernatural is real, asks Fogg for his help. That mystery takes up half the novel and is thoroughly enjoyable, pulling all the early threads together. In resolving the case we get introduced to the supernatural world. But in closing the case, questions Fogg does not want to pursue get opened and Doyle’s sense of justice leads him to quit Fogg’s employ so he can pursue justice on his own.
This is where things get very interesting. We learn that the relative peace that New York City enjoys was built upon a compact by Fogg, the chief vampire and werewolf of New York, and a famous hunter who had been trying to kill off all the supernatural creatures in the city. This compact kept NYC from breaking out into total war at the price of Old Town (about thirty blocks of the city) being turned over to the supernaturals. New Yorkers believe this is an area of such tremendous crime that not even the police go there, but those in the know understand the truth. Now, the compact appears to be in violation as werewolves are being seen killing people outside of Old Town.
The resolution of this mystery is very exciting, but there are some problems with it which I’m going to discuss next. So be forewarned, SPOILERS are ahead.
The compact was made necessary by the tremendous immigration of supernaturals to New York City from elsewhere—especially Europe. All werewolves and vampires in the city came to Old Town when Fogg cast the spell that formed the compact—basically limiting those creatures (and their progeny) to Old Town. This ignores the fact that it is immigration which was helping to cause the problem and presumably would continue after the compact was made. New immigrants would not be bound by the compact but apparently this never occurs to anyone. It’s especially troubling that no one even considers this possibility when they start finding new werewolves operating in the city. This is a serious flaw in the plot.
It also appears that new vampires and werewolves have been creates since the compact but this would seem to be impossible under the terms of the compact. Maybe I’m incorrect about this, but it struck me as a significant inconsistency.
The next complaint may be unfair, but the reader is constantly reminded that Jimmy Doyle has a metal plate in his head. Unfortunately, the plate is forgotten when Jimmy gets infected with lycanthropy and transforms. I don’t know that this would cause problems, but it would seem that the plate would have to be moved around by transforming in and out of wolf form and this is never addressed.
These are small complaints but they bothered me as I first read and thought about the book. That didn’t stop me from rereading the novel, however. If you like a good mystery with some supernatural elements, you’ll enjoy this series.
If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.
May 2, 2018
Do you ever see a book description and think wow, I'd like to check that out and then go to buy it and Amazon says, "Hey, you already bought this ages ago?" No? Just me? Well, shoot. That's exactly what happened with this book.
The Good:
I love a good whodunit and when you in the occult, it just made it all the more fun to read! As a first book in a series, it did a wonderful job of introducing the characters but leaving just enough that you want to read the rest of the series to learn more about them. I need to know more about Lucius and Ariel. So, not only are the characters absolutely smashing, but so is the story itself. It pulled me in and kept me reading right to the end.
The Bad:
Well shoot. There wasn't a whole lot that was bad about this book. I caught some grammatical things here and there but really, that was about it.
The Summary:
A fantastic read that kept me guessing right up until the end. If you're a lover of noir, the occult, supernatural creatures or all of the above, check out Dan Wickline's book. I've already wish listed the other books in the series.
The Good:
I love a good whodunit and when you in the occult, it just made it all the more fun to read! As a first book in a series, it did a wonderful job of introducing the characters but leaving just enough that you want to read the rest of the series to learn more about them. I need to know more about Lucius and Ariel. So, not only are the characters absolutely smashing, but so is the story itself. It pulled me in and kept me reading right to the end.
The Bad:
Well shoot. There wasn't a whole lot that was bad about this book. I caught some grammatical things here and there but really, that was about it.
The Summary:
A fantastic read that kept me guessing right up until the end. If you're a lover of noir, the occult, supernatural creatures or all of the above, check out Dan Wickline's book. I've already wish listed the other books in the series.
December 18, 2019
There are few things cooler than a good private eye story. It's why characters like Sam Spade and Mike Hammer are still talked about today. But wouldn't it be awesome if one of this hard-boiled detectives specialized in the supernatural? Author Dan Wickline takes a look at a different kind of noir tale. His is one where demons and werewolves are just as common as dames with legs that don't quit. In Deadly Creatures, the first novel in his new series featuring master of the occult, Lucius Fogg, Wickline creates a version of 1950s New York City where vampires and lycanthropes inhabit an area of downtown and sometimes the police need help solving cases that just don't make any sense to your regular beat cop.
You can read James' full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.
You can read James' full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.
March 22, 2020
Interesting .
Enjoyed jimmy & lucius ....good cast of characters & a decent story ..off to book 2 now , give this a read ,it's worth it .
Enjoyed jimmy & lucius ....good cast of characters & a decent story ..off to book 2 now , give this a read ,it's worth it .
October 20, 2011
I have a confession to make, and it's one where I admit I broke my cardinal rule of book reading. I HATE eBooks, Kindle and whathaveyou, mainly because they are destroying actual books. People don't seem to want to hold a book in their hands anymore, but I do. It's one of my things. I NEED the book. I will go for audiobooks if they're read by the author, because they've been around for so long, and they're another source of reading for the blind, alongside Braille. However, for this? I caved, because I love Dan's writing.
(I'm hinting here Dan, I want a hard copy!)
I love my fantasy stuff, especially werewolf related stories. Not crap like Twilight and asinine teeny-angst like that, but real, action filled werewolf stories. They're not the only creature in this by any means, but they're my favourite. Deadly Creatures is filled with action, detective mystery and otherworld goings on, that make it hard to put this down. I could see the Fogg stories being read around campfires in the dark, by torchlight under bedclothes, and quietly snuggled betwixt many a blanket on a freezing cold evening. They're that kind of story.
I know Dan has been working on novels as opposed to comics and graphic novels, but the nature of this story means I'd love to see the novel turned into a graphic novel, to compliment this one. He writes as if he's telling you the story himself, as if he were reading it to you personally next to a fire. I think the only thing I had missing, was marshmallows.
Eagerly awaiting the next installment! <3
(I'm hinting here Dan, I want a hard copy!)
I love my fantasy stuff, especially werewolf related stories. Not crap like Twilight and asinine teeny-angst like that, but real, action filled werewolf stories. They're not the only creature in this by any means, but they're my favourite. Deadly Creatures is filled with action, detective mystery and otherworld goings on, that make it hard to put this down. I could see the Fogg stories being read around campfires in the dark, by torchlight under bedclothes, and quietly snuggled betwixt many a blanket on a freezing cold evening. They're that kind of story.
I know Dan has been working on novels as opposed to comics and graphic novels, but the nature of this story means I'd love to see the novel turned into a graphic novel, to compliment this one. He writes as if he's telling you the story himself, as if he were reading it to you personally next to a fire. I think the only thing I had missing, was marshmallows.
Eagerly awaiting the next installment! <3
August 12, 2011
Full Review on HorrorTalk: http://bit.ly/nqmqJJ
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews