One Dead Vampire

In the city of Conquistos, California, things are frequently not what they seem. The police force has a strong gargoyle contingent, one of the high school's best science teachers is a vampire, and Rocky Fitzgerald's first great love—and current great frenemy—has rematerialized just when she thinks she's got her life together. (Not rematerialized-rematerialized. Nichelle isn't even a little supernatural.) Rocky 1.0 was an insecure queer girl who was afraid of selfies. Rocky 2.0 is an Insta-celeb fat activist with a serious following and a side hustle helping people fulfill their dreams.

Rocky's life coaching job doesn't exactly put her in the path of capital-D-Danger, and as an adopted human kid in a gargoyle cop family, no one expects her to save the world. But when her old chem teacher gets hauled in on suspicion of having murdered his husband, Rocky knows something's not quite right. Finding out Mr. B is a vampire is one thing; investigating the twists and turns of vampire politics while attempting to not draw attention to herself and solve the mystery of who the real murderer is takes things to a whole new level of capital-C-Crazy.

When Nichelle Crawford shows up right in the thick of it—sorry, that's Detective Nichelle Crawford these days—Rocky can't decide if it's a godsend or the universe trolling her. Together with her (borrowed) springer spaniel, she investigates a couple of vampire business moguls, goes up against a pharmaceutical company with a supernatural R&D section, and discovers a sex toy shop that deals in black market vampire meds. Also, she totally saves the day. (That's her story and she's sticking to it.)

First in a series.