First entry in a new urban fantasy saga by the creator of the popular Tinker contemporary fantasy/SF series. A young American expat writer in Japan suffering from OCD tries to figure out if she’s crazy or not while solving a murder that may be part of a war among Japanese deities.<P><a name="OLE_LINK2"></a><a name="OLE_LINK1">A contemporary fantasy of mystery and death as American expats battle Japanese gods and monsters to retrieve an ancient artifact that can destroy the world.</a><P> <P> On Saturday afternoon, Nikki Delany thought, "George Wilson, in the kitchen, with a blender." By dinner, she had killed George and posted his gory murder to her blog. The next day, she put on her mourning clothes and went out to meet her best friend for lunch to discuss finding a replacement for her love interest.<P> <P> Nikki is a horror novelist. Her choice of career is dictated by an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that forces her to write stories of death and destruction. She can't control it, doesn't understand it, but can use it to make money anywhere in the world. Currently "anywhere" is in Japan, hiding from her mother who sees Nikki's OCD as proof she's mentally unstable. Nikki's fragile peace starts to fall apart when the police arrest her for the murder of an American expatriate. Someone killed him with a blender. <P> <P> Reality starts to unravel around Nikki. She's attacked by a raccoon in a business suit. After a series of blackouts, she’s accompanied by a boy that no one else can see, a boy who claims to be a god. Is she really being pursued by Japanese myths—or is she simply going insane? <P> <P> What Nikki does know for sure is that the bodies are piling up, her mother has arrived in Japan to lock her up for the rest of her life—and her novels always end with everyone dead.<P> <P> <P> <b><I>About Wen Spenser:</i></b><P> “Wit and intelligence inform this off-beat, tongue-in-cheek fantasy…. Furious action…good characterization, playful eroticism and well-developed folklore…lift this well above the fantasy average …. Buffy fans should find a lot to like in the book's resourceful heroine.”—<I>Publishers Weekly </i>on series debut <I>Tinker</i><P> <P> “Spencer's intertwining of current Earth technology and otherworldly elven magic is quite ingenious.” –<I>Booklist </i>on the <I>Elfhome</i> series