X Is For Banyon (Crag Banyon Mysteries, #10)

X MARKS THE SOT
Plucky P.I. Crag Banyon prays that the worst thing to happen to him this week is getting stuck on jury duty. Unfortunately for alternate juror #10 (Banyon, Crag), he is no sooner liberated from the ugliest of all civil obligations than he's confronted with an even uglier professional one: a new client.
It seems some nefarious fiend with a flea fetish has kidnapped a mutt named Fifi. Banyon wants more than anything to refuse the client, but it turns out Fifi is no ordinary four-legged crotch-sniffer. The missing canine happens to belong to a couple of giants, who are desperate to get their valuable pooch back.
Problem is, the giants of Giantland have no love for humans, ever since a little case involving a certain missing golden goose fifteen years ago. A case which a certain luckless ex-cop P.I. might have had a hand in back when he was part of the thin drunk line.
How to make a perfect nightmare case for Banyon? Take one trip up a beanstalk, add in a few angry giants, toss in some bell-ringing beggars and one invisible maniac. Stir, don't shake. Garnish with a couple of olives, a lemon wedge, and as many bullets as you can grab from the barrel next to the door at Polly Skidmore's Pawn Shop. Five bucks a handful. An X-ceptional value.

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