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Home to: J.B. Dane
Beth Henderson
Nied Darnell and
Beth Daniels
Novelists &
Fiction Instructors
J.B. DANE BOOKS
Be it urban fantasy or fantasy from another realm the one thing you can count on getting when picking up one of J.B. Dane's titles is a mix of both comedy and mystery.
The Raven Tales consists of novels but also of a set of prequel tales and "between the books" stories that are cases Bram Farrell, aka The Raven, takes on, well, between the novels. Don't be surprised to find new characters showing up in these who are on the payroll for the next novel to be released.
But Dane has more than one snarky sleuth in her stable of heroes for Nick Claus of North Pole Security also has trouble brewing, and not only during the holiday season! Those naughty and nice lists don't write themselves, you know. Currently these are short stories, but a novel might appear, though don't hold your breath on when it might arrive.
Rip Patterson isn't from around these parts, though the planet of his birth has folks just like us on it. They just don't call themselves "human". And as they are a Civilization III place, their tech is better than ours. Rip is undercover on Earth, saving us from things from other planets and dimensions as part of the Intergalactic Protection Corp. Find this story in the blog section here at 4TaleTellers!
Then there are the various dragons, cursed places, clones, ghosts, and reformed thieves that turn up too.
But let's get to the titles currently available as well as those soon to arrive!
The Raven Tales Novels!
Concept cover only!
2023 is the year for
RAVEN CROSSES THE LINE
the Fourth Book in
The Raven Tales!
No specific release date yet, but
we go dimension hopping this time!
Bram was headed back to fictionland at the close of RAVEN'S EDGE, where there was a smugglers hole into Faerie where he hoped to stop Calie from doing whatever she planned to do.
Characters met in the prequel novellas and a few others,
like a 16-year-old Bram, shove our regular cast aside.
Beelz is stuck in Great Dane form,
but that simply makes it easier to steal food off
people's plate when dining out.
5++* Review from N.N. Lights' Book Heaven
Raven's Edge
Book Three of The Raven Tales
2022
ISBN-979-8985207620 trade paperback,
Kindle and KU
Name’s Bram Farrell. I’m a PI – well, used to be. Michigan doesn’t think I have the requisites for a license in this world. My experience is nearly all within the pages of a set of fantasy books written by Calista Amberson, who I thought died shortly after yanking me into the real world but hadn’t. Currently, I rank at the top of her Erase These Idiots list. The feeling is mutual.
As St. Patrick’s Day dawned, I thought the only dangerous thing on my social calendar was meeting Naomie Enright’s family. It wasn’t, though downing green dyed potato salad took courage. No, it was finding the Irish goddess Danu waiting for me at the Enright Pub’s bar. She wanted me to find an enchanted sword. Someone had nicked The Retaliator, a blade that could kill with just a scratch. Except this ancient Tuathan treasure would only go to the hand of a master swordsman.
Not many of them around in 21st century Detroit.
Except, Mack Enright, Naomie’s brother, has a friend who likes to buckle on some swash and dazzle crowds with sword play. And he's vanished, only the scents of ghoul and vampire lingering behind in his wrecked apartment. That’s never good.
And it's headed for even worse. I definitely need an edge to solve – survive – these cases!
Marked Raven
Book Two of The Raven Tales
ISBN-978-1-7339806-9-2 trade paperback, Kindle and KU
It’s raining females at the Amberson Mansion but it’s the assassins Bram Farrell, aka The Raven, could do without, particularly since someone has been taking his shields down – which should be impossible. With a vampiress for a client and a dead ghoul baked in a non-traditional manner, Bram’s got his hands full and can use all the friends he can get to survive these cases!
5* “MARKED RAVEN is, hands down, one of the most original stories I have ever read... There are loads of humorous lines, action galore, mystery, a bit of magic, a lot of paranormal, and the main character I couldn’t get enough of."
5* “If you love paranormal with a heavy dose of comedic banter, you’ll want to read MARKED RAVEN. J.B. Dane is a paranormal author to binge-read and see what happens next."
5* “So Good, I'm Reading It Again! J. B. Dane knows how to write urban fantasy."
2021
Raven's Moon
Book One of The Raven Tales
ISBN-978-0-9995083-9-8 trade paperback,
Kindle, and KU
P.I. Bram Farrell, aka The Raven, had no idea that he was fictional. He used magic to take down Otherworlder misbehavers, but there were other sleuths doing it in his neighborhood, too. Except he lived in Detroit and most of them didn't. He was scraping by for a living, like many other noir detectives, but as long as he survived, that was copacetic.
Then life changed. His creator, a witch with ancient talents, yanked him into real world Detroit and gave him a job to do. But so did the Otherworlder residents of the city that he was both surprised and relieved to find lived in this world, as well. It was actually really similar to life back in fictionland considering someone was trying to kill him here, too.
Dane “slathers on the silliness, thick and often. . . Urban fantasy fans should savor this confident series opener," says Kirkus Reviews.
5+* Dane is "a paranormal reader’s dream. With descriptive narration and world-building, the author sucks you into her world...The dialogue is fast with humor peppered throughout. The mystery subplot had me whipping through the pages until the very end...I’m instantly hooked on this series, and I can’t wait for more. Highly recommend!”
There is life between novels as these stories clearly show!
A Special "Between the Books" Novellette
Case for a Hound
Only at Amazon in Kindle
With Bram off in Vegas taking care of a debt and Naomie off visiting Lex in Tucson, Beelz is stuck staying with Delia's two prissy mutts, his only enjoyment being bossing them around. But when Samael contacts him through the Hell link with a problem, our trusty hellhound in dachshund disguise is ready to run his own case. Even if he has to head over to Windsor to do so. Hey, it's what the bridge is there for, right?
Considering that so many reviews of The Raven Tales books have made mention of Beelzie (enough to consider he was building his own fan club!) it simply seemed a shame to not give him his own case to run.
Coming 2023!
Raven in Vegas
A "Between the Books" Novella
Only at Amazon in Kindle and Trade Paperback
There's a cupid hitman to pay off for not having killed Bram in Marked Raven, and Bram's gathered the equivalent of pirate treasure in various gold coins, the cupid's preferred form of payment. Payoff to Ernie (the cupid) is to take place at The Little Chapel of Bliss, where the cigarette smoking winged mock infant hangs out. But when Bram arrives it's to find the little assassin has not hit the life expectancy jackpot in Sin City.
Coming 2023!
The Secretary's Tale
A "Between the Books" Novella
Only at Amazon in Kindle and Trade Paperback
If Beelz can have an adventure of his own, then it's only fair that Naomie has one, too!
At the close of RAVEN'S EDGE, Bram mounted a hellion for what he expected would be a trip of less than two weeks. Except he's not back by then. Or at four weeks, or four months. While he left Nomes a note, it didn't say where he was headed. Although she's recently had her job changed from secretary to CEO, she still considers herself a secretary. One left trying to hold things together for The Raven Foundation.
Except events unrolling in Detroit are making that nearly impossible! With Aspy at her side, Nomes uncovers everything Bram has been hiding from her because knowing Otherworlder's are real and Bram is a magic user has become dangerous for her not to know!
Raven's Reward
A "Between the Books" Novella
Only at Amazon in Kindle and Trade Paperback
P.I. Bram Farrell, aka The Raven, has only been on this side of the seam stitched binding for a few weeks but when a possibly apocalyptic horn goes missing, well, guess whose lap the problem of finding it lands in over the four day Thanksgiving weekend.
The story takes place after RAVEN’S MOON but before the second Raven Tales novel, MARKED RAVEN.
And a handful of cases Bram handled back in fictionland...
Raven's Rest
A Raven Tales Prequel Novella #5
Only at Amazon in Kindle and Trade Paperback
P.I. Bram Farrell's final case as The Raven in fictionland before crossing into the real world not only sends him searching for a missing Sherlock Holmes at Watson's request, it sends him into one of the places he'd prefer not to enter - The Brothers Grimm Forest, which is hungry...very hungry.
Raven's Djinn
A Raven Tales Prequel Novella #4
Only at Amazon in Kindle and Trade Paperback
At the close of RAVEN'S ANCIENT, Bram was left a present he would much rather have done without. A bottle with a simple handwritten label on it that said "Djinn". This is how things went down when the djinn left the bottle!
Raven's Ancient
A Raven Tales Prequel Novella #3
Only at Amazon in Kindle and Trade Paperback
It isn't often that a guy gets tracked down by a psychic, much less one able to send a client to the exact spot a sleuth drags himself out of Lake Erie where he's just finished putting down a kraken, but that's exactly how P.I. Bram Farrell, aka the Raven, gets his next case.
Seems not only a priceless Sumerian artifact has gone missing from a small local museum, but so has the head of the foundation that runs it. Unfortunately, it is soon apparent that the missing man isn't just anyone - he's an ancient god from the city state of Ur. Just once, it might be nice to have a case that requires rescuing kittens from trees.
Mock Raven
A Raven Tales Prequel Novella #2
Only at Amazon in Kindle and Trade Paperback
As if test-flying a chicken wasn’t enough to kill a guy’s reputation, having a fellow who looks like him kill a harpy before witnesses is really going to do a number on P.I. Bram Farrell’s reputation. With his identity, both as The Raven and himself, stolen, a murder rap pending, and a family of harpies thirsting for his blood, it's definitely not a case that will be a paying job for Bram this time out.
Raven for a Song
A Raven Tales Prequel Novella #1
Only at Amazon in Kindle and Trade Paperback
Damsels in distress really muck up a guy’s day. Particularly when they think he’s just the schmuck to come to the rescue…whether he wants to or not. This teenage siren fears she's the next victim targeted by a serial killer known as The Leech.
But can - or even should - P.I. Bram Farrell, aka The Raven, save her before her own powers blossom and she becomes a killer herself?
And for something outside
of the Raven Tales Universe
Speculative Short Stories set in the Old West
One of the many stories in
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY RIDES
is a new Santa Corp story, "The Tombstone Affair".
But this one takes us back in time to the close of the year 1881 in Tombstone, Arizona, where Frank Claus, the third son of the Santa at the time gets the shock of his life! He suddenly has the power to know where on the Naughty and Nice lists someone lands -- which only the next son in line for the sleigh is supposed to have! But Frank can't deal with Santa Corp business right now. He already has a job as a deputy marshal in Tombstone, and a missing man to find!
COMEDIC SHORT STORIES
Click on North Pole Security cover for link direct to Kindle
or check what's moved to being a FREE read in the Blog!
Catch up with things at North Pole Security and Nick Claus
Not everything at the Pole deals with things delivered by a sleigh and flying reindeer, you know!
