Something From the Nightside

The Nightside series features the saga of John Taylor, a private eye who spends most of his time in the Nightside: the tainted, magical core of London where it is always 3 A.M. It's a place where you can walk besides myths and drink with monsters. Where nothing is what it seems and everything is possible. There's a nightclub where you can pay to see a fallen angel forever burning inside a pentacle drawn in baby's blood. Or a decapitated goat's head that can tell the future in enigmatic verses of perfect iambic pentameter. There's a room where silence is caged and colors are forbidden and another where a dead nun will show you her stigmata, for the right price. She didn't rise again, after all, but she'll still let you stick your fingers in the blood-caked holes if you want.

John Taylor is a 'finder.' If you pay him enough he can find anything, whether you want him to or not. John has made his name one to be respected and feared, but it has also made him a target his entire life. To be one of the most feared and hunted men in a place where everyone has a price and an agenda isn't exactly a reputation you'd always like to have.

Taylor's gift can be deadly, and he is soon given the opportunity to prove that five years away have not lessened his powers. The secret of Taylor's childhood and mysterious destiny are fleshed out as the story progresses, but the one thing Taylor has been unable to find is the meaning and significance obviously attached to his life - although he's pretty sure it has something to do with his non-human mother who disappeared after he was born. Some unknown but very powerful someone (or something) has been trying to kill him ever since he was a kid, and the blank-faced, pseudo-beings called The Harrowing soon appear to claim their long-stalked prey and continue to appear through out the series. The very future of the Nightside is tied to John's search for the meaning to his existence

SOMETHING FROM THE NIGHTSIDE (BOOK ONE)

"Taylor is the name, John Taylor. My card says I'm a detective, but what I really am is an expert on finding lost things. It's part of the gift I was born with as a child of the Nightside. I left there a long time ago, with my skin and sanity barely intact. Now I make my living in the sunlit streets of London. But business has been slow lately, so when Joanna Barrett showed up at my door, reeking of wealth, asking me to find her runaway teenage daughter, I didn't say no. Then I found out exactly where the girl had gone. The Nightside. that square mile of Hell in the middle of the city, where it's always three AM. Where you can walk beside myths and drink with monsters. Where nothing is what it seems and everything is possible. I swore I'd never return. But there's a kid in danger and an woman depending on me. So I have no choice - I'm going home..."

Joanna Barrett hires John Taylor to find her daughter. Joanna has already been to the police and the big agencies, to no avail. Now she has come to Taylor as the result of a tip saying that only he could find Catherine in the Nightside. It's been five years since John has been home. For 50,000 pounds up front and another 50,000 if she is returned, Taylor agrees to find Catherine. However, Joanna has one condition: she is to go along on the hunt.

Taylor begins by entering the Underground; all this is new to Joanna, so he buys the tickets and shows her how to use them to get into the station. Once in, he follows his instincts til he finds a sign in Enochian, an artificial language developed to talk to angels, that points the way to a maintenance closet, where he picks up a phone and says "Nightside". The wall then opens into a tunnel leading to the Nightside of the station, where they catch a train. Let the Hunt begin.

AGENTS OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS (BOOK TWO)

"I'm John Taylor. I work in the Nightside—the gaudy, neon noir, secret heart of London, where it's always three in the morning, where gods and monsters make deals and seek pleasures they won't find anywhere else. I have a gift for finding things. And sometimes what I'm hired to locate can be very, very dangerous indeed. Right now, for example, I'm searching for The Unholy Grail, the cup that Judas drank from at the Last Supper. It corrupts all who touch it—but it also gives enormous power. So I'm not the only one hunting. Angels, devils, sinners and saints—they're all out there, tearing apart The Nightside, seeking the dark goblet. And it's only a matter of time until they realize that the famous John Taylor, the man with the gift for finding things, can lead them straight to it..."

In this, the second volume of the Nightside, John has returned home and resumed the mantle of noir private eye and finder of just about anything. This time he is on a grail hunt, not for the cup that Jesus drank from, but the other cup, the Judas Cup, which provides both ultimate power and ultimate corruption.

If it was just John Taylor and an ugly silver cup this would be a piece of cake for John - find it and return it to the Vatican, who will hide it from all the powers, human and otherwise. But no such luck - everyone is after it. Demons, gangsters, and angels - thousands of them, good and bad, all prepared to end the universe to gain the cup. Knowing he is out of his depth, Taylor brings Shotgun Suzie on board, and together they challenge Armageddon.

NIGHTINGALE'S LAMENT (BOOK THREE)

"The name's John Taylor. I work the garish streets of the Nightside—the hidden heart of London where it's always three A.M., where inhuman creatures and otherworldly gods walk side by side in the endless darkness of the soul. I have a talent for finding things. People...property...no problem. But now I'm after something different. A local diva called the Nightingale has cut herself off from her family and friends, and I've been hired to find out the reason. I'm also wondering why her suicide-prone fans think she has a voice to die for. Literally. To get the truth, I'll have to lend an ear to the most enticingly beautiful and deadly voice in all of the Nightside—and survive."

Dodging the enforcers after accidentally (on purpose) shutting down 12 percent of The Nightside's electricity. John Taylor, the dark world's premier finder accepts a new assignment, to talk to the daughter of a client - singer so powerful that listeners in the audience have been known to commit suicide. Now going clubbing on the Nightside can be fun, exciting, and, if you're not lucky, fatal.

Rossignol is the singer's stage name. Once upon a time her songs were happy ones, but now she works for the Cavendish twins and they want to use the power of her voice. If she happens to kill a few dozen people in the process, it doesn't bother them in the least. However he has to do it, Taylor is determined to solve Rossingnol's problem. He even goes so far as to involve Dead Boy.

HEX AND THE CITY (BOOK FOUR)

"John Taylor is the name. I work the Nightside. Only in that dark heart of London where it's always three A.M., where human and inhuman can feed their darkest desire, do I feel at home. Probably because I was born here. What I do is find things—people, objects—and in this case, the truth about the origins of the Nightside. That's what Lady Luck has hired me to investigate. But the more I dig, the more I discover, not about the Nightside, but about the great question in my life: exactly who—and what—was my long-vanished mother. Paying jobs are one thing. Personal quests are another. And I've been warned that uncovering the facts about dear old mum could be a very bad thing, not just for the Nightside but for all of existence. Still I can't stop... I'm John Taylor. Finding things is who I am. It's what I do. Whatever the consequence... "

Some folks call John Prince, while others make the Evil Eye sign whenever he approaches. More than one person has tried to kill him when he was growing up and even more now that he has come to the Nightside. Lady Luck has made John an offer he cannot refuse. Find the origins of the Nightside. If he succeeds, she'll tell him who his mother is.... It never occurs to John that maybe not knowing is the safer thing.

PATHS NOT TAKEN (BOOK FIVE)

"I'm John Taylor. I was born in the Nightside, that square mile in the hidden center of London where it is always the hour of the wolf, where gods and monsters walk side by side and where every dark question ever asked can be answered - for a price. I left for a while, but I did come back, to make my living doing what I do better than anyone else: finding things - lost or stolen, real or imaginary. Recently, I found the most dangerous thing of all: the true identity of my long-gone mother. Turns out she's a being who's been around since before he dawn of history. Then, she created the Nightside - and now, for her own warped reasons, she intends to destroy it. To stop her before she even gets started, I've got to do some hard traveling - back in Time, through endless eons, into the very distant - and probably deadly - past..."

John Taylor now knows who his mother is. He's seen the future and will do anything to prevent it even if it means going back in time to where it all began. John will either discover a way to stop his mother, or he will preside over the end - damned one way or another.

Accompanied by Suzie Shooter and Tommy Oblivion, Taylor heads for the past, to the days of The Nightside's birth, where he hopes to find a weakness that can stop his mother as she was stopped before. But it's a trip with no hope of return and all the magic in the world seems determined to conspire against them. And all along Taylor is haunted by visions of what may come - the ruin of the few things he cares about.

SHARPER THAN A SERPENT'S TOOTH (BOOK SIX)

"My name is John Taylor. I'm a PI for hire in the Nightside, the dark and corrupt city within the city of London. Where the sun never shines and where pleasure and horror are always on sale - for the right price. Not a nice place visit or a nice place to live. So you wouldn't think I would care that it was about to be destroyed, by none other than my very own long-missing, not-quite-human mom. But I do. I was born here, I live here, and I got friends here. They might not all be acceptable in polite company, but they're my friends nonetheless. I know that I'm the only one who can stop her. The trick is, how to do it without fulfilling this prophecy that says whatever action I take, not only is the Nightside doomed, but the rest of the world will soon follow...."

The Nightside has become a war zone. John Taylor's mother is determined to undo everything that has happened since she was banished, to return it to a place where Heaven and Hell have no power and humanity has no place. He'll need all of his friends: Shotgun Suzie, Razor Eddie, Dead Boy, Julien Advent, the Oblivion brothers, Alex Morrisey, and even Walker from the Authorities. John is determined to save his home no matter how rotten it may be.

Possibly the Final Book in the Series though some websites report than another one has been written 'And Follow the Darkness like a Dream" but has yet to be released.