Synopses & Reviews
In the days leading up to Christmas, and in accordance with the rituals of a religion which is not her own, struggling actress Esther Diamond is working as a singing-and-dancing elf at Fenster & Co, a major Manhattan department store. Meanwhile, Detective Lopez, Esther's former almost-boyfriend, is investigating a series of mob-related truck hijackings of Fenster's costly merchandise. Lucky Battistuzzi, a semi-retired hit man in the Gambello crime family, is also investigating the thefts, since the Gambellos, who didn't commit the robberies, are being inconveniently implicated in these events.
Esther becomes aware of mysterious and alarming events at Fenster's, quite apart from lurking wiseguys, squabbling shoppers, and half-naked elves. Alerted to her concerns, her friend Dr. Maximillian Zadok, Manhattan's resident mage, soon suspects that Evil is afoot in the crowded department store.Before long, Max and Esther realize that the famous shopping mecca has become the planned staging ground for the rebirth of a voracious ancient demon that's plotting to take advantage of the winter solstice, when darkness prevails, to escape its amorphous mystical prison and commence a reign of terror in New York City.
Can Max and Esther protect their city, save Detective Lopez from a sex-starved ancient entity, and survive Christianity's most exhausting holiday?
Review
"Fans of Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series will appreciate this series' lively heroine and the appealing combination of humor, mystery, and romance."
Review
"Esther Diamond is the Stephanie Plum of urban fantasy! ...Unplug the phone and settle down for a fast and funny read!"
Review
"This is one of my all-time favorite urban fantasy series and I highly recommend it to any fan of the genre. Light-hearted, zany, suspenseful, surprising, and romantic."
Review
"Dopplegangster is a joy from start to finish.... It's a wonderful blend of comedy and surprising suspense. If you haven't met Esther Diamond yet, then you're missing out on a lot of fun."
Review
"Gleeful, clever... [Resnick] spins a witty, fast-paced mystery around her convincingly self-absorbed chorus-girl heroine. Sexy interludes raise the tension between Lopez and Esther as she juggles magical assailants, her perennially distracted agent, her meddling mother, and wiseguys both friendly and threatening in a well-crafted, rollicking mystery."
Review
"Esther is a witty and charming heroine to follow. For anyone who enjoys a bit of paranormal with more than a dash of humor and a great mystery."
Review
"This is an unforgettable book. If you love vampires, humorous situations, and intrigue, go out and read it!"
Review
“Its a fun, frequently goofy, holiday story with more than a touch of staire and just the right edge of supernatural horror to keep things exciting.”
Review
"This is the fifth in the Esther Diamond series, but each works well as a standalone. And I guarantee you wont be able to read just one. Full of fabulously eccentric characters, magical mystery, and a bit of romance, Polterheist is the perfect holiday read for any urban fantasy fan."
Review
"Esther's books are always a mix of humor, scary paranormal adventures, a wacky group of supporting cast and an intense mystery to solve. I can't wait to see what happens to Esther after the holidays."
Review
"You have got to love Esther. She is such a fun character to read about. I always enjoy a good laugh and action at the same time, and Ms. Resnick always delivers."
Review
"Fans of Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series will appreciate this series' lively heroine and the
appealing combination of humor, mystery, and romance." —
Library Journal (starred review)
“Gleeful, clever... [Resnick] spins a witty, fast-paced mystery around her convincingly self-absorbed chorus-girl heroine." —Publishers Weekly
"An amusing urban fantasy starring a wonderful heroine surrounded by a horde of eccentrics, one straight cop, and one interfering matchmaking mom. The jocular story line is filled with a fast-paced frenzy from the first magical mugging until the last as Esther proves once again to be a reader's best friend with her misadventures in Manhattan mystical mayhem." —Midwest Book Review
"Dopplegangster is a joy from start to finish, with a sexy hero, a smart heroine (Does Laura Resnick write any other kind?), a fascinating plot, and a troop of supporting characters both lovable and otherwise. It's a wonderful blend of comedy and surprising suspense. If you haven't met Esther Diamond yet, then you're missing out on a lot of fun." —Linda Howard, New York Times Bestselling author
Review
“Esthers books are always
a mix of humor, scary paranormal adventures, a wacky group of supporting cast and an intense mystery to solve. I cant wait to see what happens to Esther after the holidays.” -
News and Sentinel (for
Misfortune Cookie)
“Its a fun, frequently goofy, holiday story with more than a touch of satire and just the right edge of supernatural horror to keep things exciting.” - Locus (for Misfortune Cookie)
"[Resnick] spins a witty, fast-paced mystery around her convincingly self-absorbed chorus-girl heroine. Sexy interludes raise the tension between Lopez and Esther as she juggles magical assailants, her perennially distracted agent, her meddling mother, and wiseguys both friendly and threatening in a well-crafted, rollicking mystery." - Publishers Weekly (for series)
“You have got to love Esther. She is such a fun character to read about. I always enjoy a good laugh and action at the same time, and Ms. Resnick always delivers.” - Night Owl Reviews (for series)
“This is one of my all-time favorite urban fantasy series, and I highly recommend it to any fan of the genre. Light-hearted, zany, suspenseful, surprising, and romantic.” - Sci Fi Chick (for series)
Synopsis
In this follow-up to "Disappearing Nightly," the off-Broadway production "Sorcerer!" has shut down and actress Esther Diamond is thrown out of work. While waiting tables in Little Italy, Esther realizes some magical mischief is going on when a rash of doubles--dopplegangsters--start to appear throughout the city.
Synopsis
"In Laura Resnick's
Doppelgangster, the New York actress is 'resting' between roles by working as a singing waitress at a Manhattan mob restaurant because wiseguys tip well. Then duplicated gangsters appear, bullets start flying, and it's up to Esther and her friend Max the Magician to fight Evil by stopping the gang war before it starts killing the wrong people. And if she has time, maybe Esther can actually keep a hot date with her hunky detective friend Lopez, who doesn't believe in magic. Yet. Unplug the phone and settle down for a fast and funny read."
New York Times bestselling author Mary Jo Putney
Doppelgangster is the exciting second novel of the Esther Diamond series.
Synopsis
While waiting tables in Little Italy, actress Esther Diamond realizes some magical mischief is going on when a rash of doubles--dopplegangsters--starts to appear throughout the city. A paranormal screwball comedy adventure.--Jennifer Crusie. Original.
Synopsis
Esther Diamond's year gets off to a rocky start when NYPD's Detective Connor Lopez, who slept with her and then didn't call, shuts down her current place of employment and gets her arrested. Once she's out of handcuffs, and with no paying work on the frigid horizon, Esther takes a small role in a grad student's film project in Chinatownwhere her friend semi-retired hit man Lucky Battistuzzi, who escaped Lopez's sweep at the Little Italy restaurant where Esther works between acting jobs, is hiding out in a Chinese-Italian mortuary.
Esther and Lucky soon realize that something strange is going on in Chinatown, where beautifully handcrafted fortune cookies are inflicting deadly mystical curses on the hapless victims who receive them as giftsand before long, Esther learns that Detective Lopez is one of the recipients. As preparations for Chinese New Year heat up in the ice-covered neighborhood, when the streets will be filled with costumed lion dancers, firecrackers, and dense crowds, Esther and Lucky summon the help of their friend Max, a semi-immortal mage and semi-solvent bookseller, to help them save Chinatown and Lopez (with whom Esther is not on speaking terms) from a mystical murderer of maniacal menace.
Synopsis
R.I.P. = Reanimated, Infernal, and Pretty damn dangerous Struggling actress Esther Diamond, whose year got off to a rough start (what with incarceration, unemployment, and mystical death curses), finally catches a break when she lands an acting job.
She's hired to reprise her guest role as prostitute Jilly C-Note on The Dirty Thirty, a TV crime drama about depravity and corruption in the New York Police Department. Esther's ex-sometime boyfriend, NYPD's Detective Connor Lopez, hates that show with undying passion -- especially after Esther convinces her narcissistic co-star to shadow Lopez on the job, in order to add verisimilitude to his performance as a morally bankrupt cop.
But Esther's fellow thespian is her best bet for keeping an eye on Lopez 24/7and, more to the point, on Lopez's new partner, Detective Quinn. Esther and her friend Max, a 350-year-old mage whose day job is protecting the city from Evil, suspect Quinn of being involved in the latest mystical mayhem to menace Manhattan...
Corpses suddenly aren't staying quite as dead as they should.
While Max and Esther try to determine what Quinn's role is in the supernatural reanimation of the deceased downtown, a dangerous foe with deadly intent changes everyone's dinner plans one cold winter night...
About the Author
Laura Resnick's previous fantasy novels include The White Dragon, which made the "Year's Best" lists of Publishers Weekly and Voya, and The Destroyer Goddess, which Publishers Weekly describes as "a marvel of storytelling." Under the pseudonym Laura Leone, she is the award-winning author of more than a dozen romance novels, including Fever Dreams, which Romantic Times named as a "Top Pick," and Fallen From Grace, which was a finalist for the Romance Writers of America's Rita Award. She is also the Campbell Award-winning author of more than 60 short stories. The Esther Diamond series is her first venture into modern urban paranormal fantasy.