The Walking Shadows
3 primary works • 4 total works
Book 1
The year is 1933. Even in a world with free energy, robot labour, and megacorporations, nothing could stop the collapse of the American Dream. As the world-spanning Great Depression rages on, the remaining New York-based mafias clash with police for control of the broken city. Elias Roche, former police officer turned Mafia enforcer, works to maintain a tenuous peace between the two parties.
Accustomed to settling disputes with the business end of a gun, Roche must expand his repertoire after a violent murder is covered up by the FBI. With the Mafia insisting they're innocent of the crime and the police powerless to help, Roche and his new Automatic partner, Allen, must root out those responsible before the situation sparks a war in the city streets.
Book 2
December, 1933. The city that cannot sleep, where cartels and mobsters go bump in the night. Manhattan’s delicate peace is broken when four politicians in the pocket of America’s reigning megacorporation are murdered at the Edison Hotel, dispatched by an unknown assassin wielding a rare and unique weapon. The NYPD calls upon the only man for the job: Elias Roche, the Nightcaller.
With Upper City bigwigs in a panic and the shadowy Iron Hands poised to make a grab for the Lower City, Roche is having doubts about his role in the complex power structure as a former cop and current Mob enforcer. But he sets out to investigate, now under more scrutiny than ever before: a new radio show based on his escapades thrusts unwanted fame upon him, the FBI are breathing down his neck, and a relentless journalist is dogging his every move. Meanwhile, an awakening cynicism in his Automatic partner, Allen Erzly, is turning their already bleak world upside down. As the pressure mounts, it’s a race to find the killer before the eve of the New Year.
Book 3
In an alternate 1933, a sleuth and his robot partner are caught in the middle of a legal battle that will decide the fate of the world’s machine population.
Carlson does a good job populating his gritty, split-level world with dodgy mobsters, deadly dames, and killer machines. — Publishers Weekly, for Night Call
Two months after an investigation that nearly put Elias Roche behind bars, the former cop turned mob enforcer has endeavoured to separate himself from his past by going straight. Now working as a private investigator, his attempts to build himself a quiet life have so far been promising. However, while Manhattan’s Lower City is in the midst of a reignited mob war, Elias is faced with finding a man who doesn’t want to be found, absolving a machine of a murder charge, and discovering a network of secrets that keeps the world turning, almost literally.
Reuniting with his old Automatic partner, Allen, and reporter-turned-hitman Simone, Elias must search for the truth amid a web of conspiracy and lies. While failure would result in the eradication of all Automatics in America and cripple the megacorporation that hired him to investigate, success could uncover truths no one is ready to face: truths about the city, Allen’s past, and which side they are all truly fighting for.
Books 1-3
