Bitter

Shadows slink through the night in Alkali Flat as homicide detective Juanita Bitter investigates murders most foul. But when a Dispatcher's body is found in the stairwell of the police department, Bitter is forced into a case where everyone is a suspect—especially her fellow officers. Worse, that same Dispatcher had managed to put Bitter in the hospital a few days earlier…

When the sun goes down, the strange, exotic, and magical emerges in Bitter's Sacramento. And if something hisses at her from a dark alley, it may not be a stray cat.

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The short story, Bitter Blood, introduces Bitter and her world-down the street, around the corner, and one dimension over from the "real" Sacramento.

Bitter Nights picks up the continuing story of Bitter a few months later. Murder, monsters, and mayhem-crime meets urban fantasy and Bitter must solve the case before someone else dies.