Genre: Sci-Fi

Books from Dagmar Miura in the sci-fi genre

The Melted Pineapple

by Christopher Church

Confronted with a hidden space in the walls of his new office, Mason tracks down Astrid Luna, the architect who renovated the building, and with the help of his boyfriend, Ned, and their roommate, Peggy, soon gets inside the void—but their discovery only raises more questions. Researching the original architect, Mason asks the ever-inscrutable paranormal overseer Hanh to help him bleed through to the past, where he can ask the guy to explain what’s going on. Connecting with some old friends, including a drag queen that he doesn’t recognize without a dress on, Mason manages to figure out the purpose of the space and the mystical object within, eventually returning to the building and maybe even putting the final piece of the puzzle in place

author’s blog

“Here we go again—a terrific psychic detective novel. Church doesn’t miss in this page-turning winner.”  —David Osborn, best-selling author of Murder on Martha’s Vineyard, Love and Tresason, and others

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Stealth Glasses

by Christopher Church

Psychic investigator Mason is suspicious when Ortiz, a shady Navy operative from the desert, asks for his help, claiming he’s looking for his runaway teenage son, Owen. There’s more to it, he soon realizes, digging into Owen’s life, and Mason finds himself going to extreme lengths to stay off Ortiz’s radar. And who exactly is the hippie, visible in old photos but without a name, just beyond the reach of memory? With help from his talented roommate, Peggy, and his boyfriend, Ned, the scruffy flatfoot tangles with drag queens, religious extremists, a protest march, and maybe even aliens in this latest mystery in the Mason Braithwaite series.

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“Church vividly constructs a world peopled with characters I did not want to leave behind when I finished the book.”  —an Amazon reader

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The Head Hunters: A Medical Thriller

by David Osborn

Washington DC—and terror in an isolated government-sanctioned medical laboratory as the potential of medicine goes horrifyingly wrong.

When Susan, a young researcher, loses her fiancée in a terrible accident, she is seduced by Michael, a friend and the head doctor on a top-secret neurometric project backed by the White House and the famed Borg-Harrison Foundation. Joining Michael’s team, Susan is unaware of the terrible danger she faces in the high-security facility and from Katherine, the team psychologist, who will go to any lengths to protect the lab’s vital secrecy—and her own carnal desires. When Susan stumbles onto the true nature of the project, it’s to find herself in it too deep to walk away and, trapped in the worst kind of nightmare, threatened every second to becoming a ghastly medical experiment herself.

In The Head Hunters, David Osborn explores the murky boundaries between ethics and medical research, between volunteer and victim, ambition and ruthlessness, and between life and death when a team of responsible doctors plays a deadly game in which any of the players can be condemned to a purgatory more ghastly than hell.

“Breathless introduction to the inner workings of big business …”  —The Times Literary Supplement, reviewing David Osborn’s The Glass Tower

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The Mythical Blond

by Christopher Church

Strange things happen in the desert Southwest. Hired to work a contract job at a remote military base in Nevada, psychic investigator Mason soon finds the Navy’s real motivation for luring him there involves an old friend and her ratty jalopy. On the way back to Los Angeles he gets entangled with Effie, who has an intensely dysfunctional relationship with her husband, and Iris, who recruits him to do an episode of reality TV. His understanding of the world begins to warp as Effie and Iris act out ancient mythologies in their own lives, dragging Mason into exploits that include safecracking, a séance, and a time-travel excursion.

This latest installment in the Mason Braithwaite Paranormal Mystery Series sees the disheveled redhead honing his psychic chops while digging deeper into paranormal phenomena. His boyfriend, Ned, and their roommate, Peggy, try to be stabilizing forces in Mason’s life, but the echoes of the past make him start to question the nature of reality itself.

“A whole new exciting slant on private eye-ing.… May we see more of Mason, his unabashedly psychic detective, and a lot more of Church’s no-nonsense plotting. I loved it—couldn’t put it down.”  —David Osborn, best-selling author of Open Season, Murder On Martha’s Vineyard, and The French Decision

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Rubber-Band Ball

by Christopher Church

A metallurgist's desire for Mason to locate the earth energy points running under Los Angeles seems straightforward enough, but what is he planning to do with them once he knows where they are? A shady real estate transaction and a bizarre machine hidden in the backyard might reveal some answers. Mason's research leads him to Julia, a waitress and part-time banker who draws him into a quest of her own, plumbing the depths of the radio era when she uncovers a cache of forgotten artifacts. And what does Meg, descendant of a long forgotten radio star, know about it, hiding from the world in her townhouse?

From digging up the yard to tracking down clues on the other side of the country, and with the begrudging support of his boyfriend, Ned, and help from their roommate, Peggy, the intrepid bicycle-riding psychic investigator uses his paranormal skills and real-world insights to get to the bottom of the twisted mystery.

Author’s blog

“Another fast-paced ride through Los Angeles by Church, who continues to reinvent and reinvigorate Mason Braithwaite, keeping the Paranormal Mystery Series relevant and entertaining. Church’s writing is vivid, the worlds he creates believable, and his characters have a breadth of humanity, strength, and vulnerability that makes the series a fun-filled, page-turning adventure.”  —Jeremy Randolph, author of The Mural

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The Landers Mystique

by Christopher Church

On a weekend break in the Mojave, psychic investigator Mason stumbles across the story of a bygone journalist, Geraldine, who expired in the desert on her way to one of the early flying saucer meet-ups. Unable to shake the pointlessness of the tragic tale, Mason trades a favor with his psychic-world mentor, Hanh, who sends him to the East Coast to attend a wedding where he doesn’t know anyone. Wracked with guilt about his role in disrupting the event, Mason grapples with the cost of intervening in Geraldine’s life, and gains new resolve to change the outcome.

With help from his mid-century friends Billy and Flattop, and with the unflagging support of his boyfriend, Ned, and their roommate, Peggy, Mason shifts to Geraldine’s era, and on a long road trip to Landers, manages to rearrange things enough to shake the foundations of his own timeline.

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author’s blog

“Every foray by Church’s wonderful psychic detective Mason Braithwaite is a truly suspenseful page-turner in the most unusual crime series ever, and certainly one that no aficionado of crime fiction should miss.”  —David Osborn, author of the best-selling thrillers The French Decision and Love and Treason

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Honorable mention in the 2017 Rainbow Awards

Rainbow Award

The Invisible Arrow

by Christopher Church

When an old client sends psychic investigator Mason on a ghost hunt, he stumbles onto a research lab populated by strangely passive scientists with some remarkably advanced tech. Ingratiating himself with Annette, the director, by participating in the local town’s folk festival as the Hunter, Mason scores a gig—to find Qualtrough, a scientist gone missing under mysterious circumstances. Equipped by the researchers with a new suit and a fat wad of cash, and using his burgeoning psychic powers, Mason sets out on his own to hunt for Qualtrough in the shadowy underworld of Los Angeles nightlife, tangling with drag queens, cops, and con artists and finding his voice in an unfamiliar world.

“Mason is a hero like none who have come before him: a sensitive, queer P.I. whose only weapon is his intuition. This book turns the detective genre on its head and makes you think about the ninety percent of your brain you’re not using.”  —Teja Watson, author of Attic.doc

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The Desert Rats

by Christopher Church

Strange things start to happen as soon as psychic investigator Mason and his boyfriend, Ned, and their roommate, Peggy, arrive in the high desert. An old friend sends him on a quest to identify an artifact found hidden among his dead father’s possessions, and the journey brings him into contact with a series of odd characters—not least the enigmatic Laura, who’s camping out on the desert but seems to be up to something else. With the help of a manicurist, a librarian, and a revealing side-trip back to Los Angeles, Mason manages to sharpen his psychic skills and gain insights into Gilbert’s artifact—and perhaps even the hidden structure of the world.

Author’s blog

“A whole new exciting slant on private eye-ing … may we see more of Mason, his unabashedly psychic detective and a lot more of Church’s no-nonsense plotting. I loved it—couldn’t put it down.”  —David Osborn, best-selling author of Open Season, Murder On Martha’s Vineyard, and The French Decision

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Penstock Canyon

by Christopher Church

Helping out Gilbert, a friend who’s suffering from late-night visitations, psychic investigator Mason is confronted with aliens on the roof, and soon finds himself caught in a whirlwind of paranormal events. Liminal beings contract him to stop a very real land development project in Los Angeles, pitting him against ruthless and powerful forces. With help from his boyfriend, Ned, and their roommate, Peggy, Mason manages to con his way into obtaining documents that might upend the whole project, but is it worth his own safety? A threatening visit from a shadowy figure and an alien abduction therapist from Texas have Mason questioning his career, his motivations, and the very nature of reality.

“In the world of crime fiction, few come up with true originality. But Christopher Church has, and with exciting imagination.… Keep reading—you won’t regret a single gripping page.”  —David Osborn, best-selling author of Open Season, Murder on Martha’s Vineyard, and The French Decision

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Night on the Water

by Christopher Church

A chance encounter on an airplane with the woolly academic Rovski leads psychic investigator Mason onto a college campus, where he works to figure out why math professor Emily is hassling the guy. As he digs into the mystery, his psychic mentor Hanh instructs him to connect with his client in the dream world. Mason works to get lucid in his dreams and struggles to understand the symbolism and the meaning of his experiences in that realm, and how it intersects waking life. It soon becomes clear that he’s seeing things that other people don’t, and the plucky redhead has to grapple with the classic psychic’s dilemma: how to relate paranormal experiences back to mundane reality. His boyfriend, Ned, and their roommate, Peggy, help Mason keep his feet on the ground, and old friend Gilbert shows up in ways that transcend helpful and dive into annoying. As Rovski gets more rattled by Emily’s behavior, Mason gets closer to the truth, sailing across a mountain lake in the dead of night, chasing his quarry on his trusty bicycle, and ultimately unfolding a hidden part of reality.

“Church vividly constructs a world peopled with characters I did not want to leave behind when I finished the book.”  —an Amazon reader

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