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Tony Mandolin
The Tony Mandolin Mysteries are a series of noir urban fantasy novels set in and around today's San Francisco. Most of the action happens in the city itself, but a few books do leave the bay area, and on occasion, the world.
The books[]
Book 1: A Slight Case of Death
Nothing is at it seems…
Vampires don't exist, do they? That's a question Private Detective Tony Mandolin finds himself pondering as the evidence piles up pointing to just that in a case involving a string of dead redheads and the usual dose of weirdness San Francisco has to offer. To complicate things, Mandolin doesn't appreciate the perception of those around him that he's become the latest golden boy of Fog City's crime boss. None of that gets into his cross-dressing friend Frankie... Ahh, just another day in San Francisco.
Book 2:One Last Quiche
Who's poisoning San Francisco's foodies? Tony Mandolin, Fog City's only private eye with a view into the supernatural, has been retained to find out why gourmands are turning up dead all around the city. Unfortunately, this brings him to the attention of Medb, the Queen of the Unseelie Court. Tony's only hope of survival against the powerful fairy lies in the hands of an alcoholic wizard whose only mood setting is cranky.
Book 3: What The Puck?
San Francisco's only gumshoe with an eye into the supernatural, Tony Mandolin, is having one of those months. His bad mood drives him to a local pub where he encounters his latest client, a Leprechaun who's lost his adopted niece who's a runaway Dryad. Tony's problems are only just beginning. Some days it pours and when Landau Bain, the city's crankiest wizard, arrives on Tony's doorstep, the super sleuth knows what's comin' down ain't rain.
Book 4: Hair Of The Dog
All families come with their own unique problems, but when that family is a clan of Eastern European vampires led by an extremely wealthy viscount living it up in a luxurious, imported castle, only Tony Mandolin can solve the problem. San Francisco's only flatfoot with an eye into the weird runs into trouble with a pregnant werewolf. Tony swears he never laid a hand on her. Now someone's burning the city's more corrupt citizens alive from the inside out. Needless to say, the city fathers are not pleased. Compared to that, Tony figures taking on a gig involving a vampire viscount's gotta be a piece of cake. But, when a wealthy guest of the Viscount goes poof in the middle of a costume ball, Tony's dealing with a different kind of fire he's not sure he can put out.
Book 5:Lucky Stiff
Someone is messing around with Luck. In a city with some of the largest underground gambling mobs in the world, Tony Mandolin, San Francisco's supernatural shamus, finds himself neck deep in Cartels, Triads, and Russians, oh my! Soon our world-weary, cynical PI winds up in a card game where the loser has to give up a whole lot more than just his chips.
Book 6: The Clone In The Closet
Does a clone share a soul? That's a question Tony Mandolin, San Francisco's slew foot of the supernatural has to figure out when he's suddenly confronted with reports that his cross-dressing partner Frankie's been committing violent crimes all over the city. Who the hell's making "Frankie" copies? Tony wants to know. Taking a literal trip to Hell may be the only way for a slightly worn sleuth to figure this case out.
Book 7: Stake & Eggs
S'ome day's it just don't pay to crawl outta bed.
That's San Francisco supernatural shoofly Tony Mandolin's feeling when he has to deal with the original Count Dracula…and a massive hangover…at the same time. What does a rumpled private investigator do when the original Badass Bloodsucker wants to reunite with his estranged, "teetotalling" vampire family and figures Tony's just the guy to solve all his problems?
The Characters[]
Main Characters
Anthony Mandolin, aka "Tony" is the main character as well as the narrator and point of view for the series. In the first book, he is living in a small rundown apartment in one of San Francisco's older and more suspicious urban areas. His office is a single room at the end of an even more dilapidated office building. Tony is described as being rugged, rather than good looking and stands at 6'3". He has a stubborn streak which has not done him well in his business dealings and his insistence in being honest has hurt him even more, including his relationship with the police department. In fact, he has only one friend on the force, Police Captain Patrick Monahan.
Unlike most urban fantasy protagonists, Tony has no special powers or abilities. His preferred method of working is to ferret out snippets of information until the complete picture forms and the case is closed. A San Francisco native, Tony has a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of the city, including its bus routes. As he refuses to drive, this information often comes in handy.
Tony can usually hold his own in a fight, having learned the basics in unarmed combat as a survival tactic, but he is also known to cheat when the situation calls for it, and it usually does. He describes his cheaters as "Tony's little helpers" and their existence being anywhere from slightly illegal to "oh my God illegal".
Little is written about Tony's tastes in food and drink other than he appears to prefer standard San Franciscan fare, such as steak, crab, and Italian cuisine, and his favorite beer is the local Anchor Steam product.
It is in the first novel, A Slight Case of Death where Tony's worldview changes, as well as his fortunes. Up until that time, he was a bottom tier PI with little to look forward too other than cheap take out and more bills. In the case the book details, his eyes are opened to the world of the supernatural, nearly every mob boss in the city begins throwing money at him and he finds out that vampires are terrifyingly real.
Franklin Amadeus Jackson aka "Frankie" is Tony's best friend and his business partner. In the books, Frankie is described as being a very, very large black man as well as a drag queen and a performer in South of Market drag reviews. In the first book, Frankie is actually a suspect in the case for a short time before becoming an active associate of Tony's at the end. Besides being a cross-dresser, Frankie is also a fashionista, a pop culture sponge and obviously totally clueless to the fact that most people are not. This character flaw is a well-used source of humor in the series.
As well as being very large, Frankie is also equally strong and that strength is of considerable help to Tony in more than one instance.
Patrick Monahan, aka "Pat" Monahan, is Tony's only friend on the San Francisco police force. A lieutenant in the first few books, Monahan eventually gains a Captain's badge. It is hinted but not confirmed in the books, that the promotion was due to the number of cases he solved with Mandolin's help and the lateness of the promotion had something to do with that same friendship. Like Tony, Pat is a native San Franciscan. Also like Tony, he does not suffer fools gladly and quite often finds himself at his wit's end with Monahan and what was done in the name of solving the latest case.
Landau Bain aka "Bain" is the third main character of the series even though he is not in the first book. Bain is a wizard and as far as San Francisco is concerned, the wizard. He is also an alcoholic as well as a drunk, and there is a difference as the books point out. Introduced in the second book, One Last Quiche, Bain quickly becomes the main anti-hero of the series. There is little told about his background, but it is hinted that he is centuries, perhaps millennia old. The wizard is described as having a temper when he has been drinking, and being even worse when he has not.
Supporting Cast
Willit, Willit is the leader of a pixie tribe, tiny winged hominids about 6" high in average. Willit is capable of growing to standard human size for a limited period of time and shows a remarkable lack of respect for most of humanity, whom he calls "bigguns". As with the rest of the pixies, Willit displays a love of hard liquor and a remarkable capacity for the beverage, preferring scotch, and as cheap as possible. In addition to being unrepentant drunks, pixies also have the capacity to sniff out magic, a talent that Tony puts to good use once he has properly bribed the leader of the tribe.
Paul Paul Verona, one of the leading experts in mold, mildew, and amphibians, works in one of the Berkeley labs in the East Bay. He is also one of those geniuses who seems distracted while taking everything in. Paul feels he owes Tony, big time, both for Tony having solved a problem for him a few years back, and for being introduced to Ursula. The two Nerds in Love, as Tony calls them share IQ's and appetites. Paul's voice on the phone is frequently mixed with the sounds of chewing.
Ursula Ursula Ignatova is the Medical Examiner for the City and County of San Francisco. She is also Tony Mandolin's go-to gal for information when his case involves a murder. Standing about 5-foot nothing, Ursula has an IQ higher than her weight by roughly two-fold. She can also eat just about any man under the table. There's no telling how many burials in the bay area had included snack crumbs in the deceased.
Julius, the grandson of the great Pontious the Finder, is a werebeagle, not wereWOLF, wereBEAGLE. He is a superb tracker who's sensitive nose isn't even put off by low tide or excessive rain. Julius has helped Tony out in several cases, especially those where the trail has supposedly gone dead. As is common with most of the non-predatory were species, Julius can be a bit timid, so do not startle him, unless you have a very good carpet cleaner.
Tiny, the owner and bartender of The Snug, Tony's neighborhood pub, is one of the few men who can also look Frankie right in the eye. Tiny isn't just a big man, he's huge. He also has a punch that will lay out a troll. Of course, that's not all that hard to do when you are also Odin, the Allfather of the Norse gods.
'District Attorney Raibeart Mac 'a tSaoir, the closest English translation from the Gaelic is Robert Macintyre. Besides being one of the top-performing prosecutors in San Francisco, he also happens to be the human host for Thor, as well as Tiny’s son.
Violet Thurgood, PI is the female version of Tony Mandolin. Quick with a joke and a snappy comeback, she also packs a hard right hand and an even harder kick to the groin if the situation calls for it.
Greystoke, Tony Mandolin's German Shepherd dog, companion, and protector. He is large for the breed and has been known to be threatening enough that word has spread. Only those burglars foolish enough, desperate enough, or new to the city dare to try a break-in. The last one that did still hasn't been found. Forensics refuses to run samples of Greystoke's droppings.