Stalking the Unicorn: A John Justin Mallory Mystery

At first John Justin Mallory thought he was drunk, but Murgensturm the elf was real, and the *other* Manhattan is real too. A hard drinking, hard boiled detective matches wits with a demon, a leprechaun, and a double cross or two. He finds a city much like his home but with society ladies raising miniature chimeras and elephant howdah taxis. John Justin Mallory figures out who's scamming who and how to come out on top. What's best with fantasy and old school detective stories in a single cover. A complex skein of motives and opportunities, no hidden clues or characters, and the most entertaining cameos. A chess game played for decades, retired race horses with grudges against humanity, the missing person office at a police station where the proverbial Odd Man Out resides, the genies of the New York Exchange, Felina, and many others work together to make this a rich and entertaining story. Can't recommend it highly enough. E.M. Van Court

This book is the first of two so far written.I HOPE it and it's sequel are only the beginning of o fantastic series.

It is New Year's Eve in present day Manhattan and private detective John Justin Mallory is having a drink at his office when he sees the elf Murgensturrm; the sleuth assumes he is hallucinating. The elf convinces the shamus he is real and needs his help. On Murgensturn's Manhattan in a parallel universe he was given an assignment by his guild and he blew it. If he does not find the unicorn Larkspur by the next morning he will die. Leprechaun Flyer Gillespie stole the unicorn on behalf of the demon Grundy. Gillespie double crosses Grundy so Mallory on this alternate earth searches for the impish leprechaun. He gets helps from Felina the cat-girl, who adores him and is at his side as he makes his inquiries. A small talking horse informs Mallory that Larkspur is special because on her forehead is a magical ruby that is the gateway between earths. Something happens and his quest becomes personal. Mallory must find the ruby or become trapped on this alternate Manhattan that is weirder than his birth side as elves, goblins, dwarves and other make up part of the populace. Worse some want the outsider dead. Mike Resnick shows why he is a first class storyteller who switches from his more serious works to a lighthearted whimsical urban fantasy filled with interesting characters from various mythological species and of course a somewhat stunned human sleuth. The tale located in Manhattan is fascinating as there is no telling what might crawl out of the subway (sounds actually like the NYC I grew up in). The hero is a Phillip Marlowe type placed in a strange yet similar environs and his investigation is very entertaining as he follows clues that seem slightly off kilter in his mind. Harriet Klausner

Private eye John Justin Mallory has hit an all time low point in his life. His wife ran off with his ex-partner, the mafia has put a price on his head, he doesn't have any money and no prospective clients, either, until he sees a little green elf trying to hire him. At first, Mallory blames the elf-sighting on the bourbon he has been drinking, but as he listens to Murgenstrum's story, he starts believing that elves really do exist. When some mob guys come to get him, the elf's ideas start to seem really good and Mallory is on the case.Turns out that Murgenstrum was in charge of watching a unicorn, the unicorn that kept the fairy world and the human world linked. In the heart of each unicorn was a magic gem that had amazing power and the Grundy, a demon, wanted that power. Murgenstrum was positive that the Grundy had kidnapped the unicorn and was desperate to find it before the unicorn was killed. They didn't have much time and Mallory was all too aware that, if the unicorn died, the veil between his world and the fairy world would disappear and he would be stuck in a world populated with fairies, gnomes, leprechauns, goblins, demons and who knows what else! I found this to be an entertaining, light fantasy read. Resnick's view of the fairy world was very interesting and it was great to see Manhattan as a world living alongside fantasy where things are never what they seem. The only thing that could have made this book better was to have better character development and a smoother plot. The characters had a tendency to pop in and out of the story, some to be seen again, most not. They are not necessarily hard to keep track of, but some of Mallory's adventures seemed contrived to make the book longer than it needed to be. Still the wacky characters in the book are a great part of its charm. I enjoyed the book, but I borrowed it from a virtual library and so I think this book is worth reading, but I don't know if I would feel the same way if I had paid for it...

I read this book five times. Wonderful funny book.