Crossover Cover: Sex, Lies, and Private Eyes

This anthology from Moonstone includes two crossovers. In C.J. Henderson's "The Mind of the Dead," psychometrist Lai Wan comes to the aid of Carl Kolchak when they turn out to be investigating the same series of crimes. Kolchak also encountered Lai Wan in Spring 1997 during the events of Henderson and Joe Gentile’s novel Partners in Crime. September 15 is a Saturday, placing this story in 1997 as well, after Partners in Crime. “The Mind of the Dead” does not address whether Kolchak and Lai Wan have met before. In John Lutz's "Recreational Vehicle," a St. Louis private eye named Nudger travels to Florida to help his girlfriend’s aunt and uncle, who are being blackmailed, and works with his fellow P.I. Fred Carver to resolve the situation. Lutz’s P.I. Fred Carver is in the CU through a mention of Robert B. Parker’s eye Spenser in his first appearance, Tropical Heat, as well as a brief appearance in Robert J. Randisi’s Miles Jacoby novel Hard Look. This crossover brings in Lutz’s other series P.I. character, Alo Nudger.

Crossover Cover: Lai Wan: Tales of the Dreamwalker

The late C.J. Henderson wrote several stories about a female Chinese psychometrist named Lai Wan, who first debuted in his Teddy London stories, which are in the CU. This collection featuring the character includes four stories co-written with other authors, in which Lai Wan is teamed with those authors' characters. "Family Ties" is co-written by Patrick Thomas, and has Agent Karver and his partner Mandi Cobb of Thomas' Department of Mystic Affairs enlisting Lai Wan's aid in tracking down Mandi's kidnapped nephew. The Department of Mystic Affairs tales are a spin-off of Thomas' Murphy's Lore series, and he has done several other spin-off books for characters from that series. "Innocent Monsters" teams Lai Wan with John L. French's Baltimore police detective Bianca Jones, who regularly runs into the supernatural (I did a Crossover of the Week post about Bianca's origin story, "Out of the Blackness," a while ago.) Henderson and Bruce Gehweiler's "One Night in Chinatown" has Lai Wan working with former Sheriff Donna Fargo, who now works for Doctors Blakely and Boles, supernatural experts appearing in a series of stories by Henderson and Gehweiler that are collected in the book Where Angels Fear. Finally, John Sunseri and Henderson's "Not What One Does" has Lai Wan and Sunseri's NSA agent Jack Dixon battling a shoggoth.