Sleep Tight, Wake Dead (Crag Banyon Mysteries, #9)

IN THE BEGINNING, THERE WAS BANYON INVESTIGATIONS, INC...
Crag Banyon just wants a little peace and quiet to go along with his bourbon, but as usual his prayers go unanswered. This time trouble comes in the ethereal form of a desperate guardian angel who wings his way through the front door of Banyon Investigations. Banyon's would-be client has been given the slip by a nihilist charge; a human being wholly uninterested in holy intervention, and the sad-sack seraph needs Banyon's help to track the MIA unbeliever down.
Banyon has cracked bigger cases than this, and he thinks he knows the drill chapter and verse. But that's before the arrival on the scene of a heavily armed heavenly host, a mysteriously happy and incredibly well-rested populace, and a delicious-smelling shadow of doom circling the city.
The deeper Banyon digs, the more he regrets not taking that job at the florist shop. In the end, the only great mystery of the universe he wants to solve is how many P.I.'s can pass out on the head of pin or, if a pin is unavailable, the nearest vacant bar stool. Unfortunately for Crag Banyon, P.I., the cosmos, cosmology and probably cosmetology have bigger plans, most seeming to revolve around killing him dead.
...AND IT WAS: "RUDE SERVICE," "INVESTIGATOR APPEARED DRUNK, REPEATEDLY," "OVERALL 'F' RATING." (INFORMATION COURTESY THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU)

James Mullaney is a Shamus Award-nominated author of over 50 books, as well as comics, short stories, novellas, and screenplays. His work has been published by New American Library, Gold Eagle/Harlequin, Marvel Comics, Tor, Moonstone Books, and Bold Venture Press. He was ghostwriter and later credited writer of 28 novels in The Destroyer series, and wrote the series companion guide The Assassin's Handbook 2. He is currently the author of The Red Menace action series as well as the comic-fantasy Crag Banyon Mysteries detective series.
He was born in Taxachusetts, and wishes he were an only child, save one.
He can be reached via email at housinan@aol.com