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Special X book cover 1
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Special X
Series · 14
books · 1984-2009

Books in series

Headhunter Reimagined book cover
#1

Headhunter Reimagined

1984

IT BEGAN WITH HORROR. THEN IT GOT WORSE. There were still traces of extraordinary beauty in the woman's brutally violated body—but there was no way of knowing how beautiful she had been. Her head was missing. She was the first—but there were more to come. Many more. A killer was loose and no woman was safe...a killer who eluded even renowned Detective Robert Declercq as he and the police combed the lower depths of the sexual underground on two continents...a killer whose lust for women, whether they were "bad" or "good," went beyond even twisted sex and hideous death. Don't try to guess who it is. Try not to scream when you find out.
Ghoul book cover
#2

Ghoul

1987

Dressed in a cape and top hat, with a bone white face and madman's eyes, the Ghoul crawls from the London sewers to kill - bloodily, perversely, inexplicably. In Vancouver, the horror rock group Ghoul cavort onstage, their act a bizarre and violent front. But, for what? Drugs? Snuff films? Dirty money? Contract killings? Inspector Zinc Chandler of Special X thinks he knows. Is there a connection between London's orgy of killings and Vancouver's underworld sleaze? The answer could lie in the dark obsessions and twisted Cthulhu Mythos fantasies of an old Rhode Island family whose tainted past will not lie quiet in its grave.
Cutthroat book cover
#3

Cutthroat

1992

The manhunt for the serial killer stalking San Francisco journeys from Little Bighorn, to the search for Bigfoot, to modern-day Communist China. Original.
Ripper book cover
#4

Ripper

1994

From the bestselling author of Cutthroat comes a nerve-shattering thriller combining the legend of Jack the Ripper, the terrifying secrets of the Tarot, and a "mystery weekend" on a secluded Canadian island, whereurder becomes all too real.
Evil Eye book cover
#5

Evil Eye

1996

The brutal murder of his beloved mother has left Detective Nick Craven in shock. But being accused of the crime rips open a devastating nightmare. Then another murder occurs, and the victim is one of Craven's associates. Someone has targeted the elite members of the Mounted Police, and evidence points to an insider. Enter veteran investigators Robert DeClercq and Zinc Chandler, who have to unravel the most chilling case of their careers. From the blood-soaked secrets of the Craven household to a terrifying journey into deepest Africa, these two top-notch detectives will match wits with a killer who has vengeance on his mind and death in his heart. And with each step they take toward the horrifying truth, the killer waits, and watches...
Primal Scream book cover
#6

Primal Scream

1998

Decades ago, Inspector Robert DeClercq suffered a tragedy when his young daughter was kidnapped and killed after he was unable to save her. Only now, with a young girl named Katt in his life, can he put his demons to rest. Until DeClercq's Special X Team receives a shrunken head, heralding the return of the Headhunter—a psychopath who left a trail of headless bodies in his wake eleven years earlier—or is it a copycat killer? While the team seeks the answer, Katt is kidnapped, luring DeClercq away from his comrades into a deadly web of revenge!
Burnt Bones book cover
#7

Burnt Bones

1999

On a remote island off the coast of Seattle, a man lies buried alive. Miles away, his captor—the elusive killer known only as Mephisto—listens through a transmitter to his victim's dying screams, waiting for him to reveal a secret only he knows. But learning the secret is only the beginning of Mephisto's maniacal game.... Tracking the madman are two detectives. In Canada, Superintendent Robert DeClercq, a man who has experienced horror up close. In America, Jenna Bond, a young detective who has never known true horror—until now. Together they will uncover a trail of clues that will lead them to Mephisto, and into the bloody past in which he exists. Because there the most terrifying secrets are buried, lying amidst the bones of the dead....
Hangman book cover
#8

Hangman

2000

The game begins in Seattle, where a hanged woman is found with one leg missing. Then, in Vancouver, a corpse is found with both legs missing. The clue that binds these horrific crimes together is a game of "Hangman" crudely drawn at each location—painted in the victim's blood. The victims, it seems, were jurors on a controversial case years ago, in which a man was sentenced to death—by hanging. Two cops on both sides of the border—Canadian detective Zinc Chandler and American detective Maddy Thorne—are up against a killer whose every move means death. To stop him, they must solve the riddle of the hangman—before the madman makes his final, murderous move...and wins the game.
Death's Door book cover
#9

Death's Door

2002

The photos pinned to the Strategy Wall in Chief Superintendent Robert DeClercq's office prove that he and his colleagues are up against a monster this time—or is it monsters? First there's the baffling murder by incineration of eight people in Britain, which seems to have been done simply to steal a corpse. Next it's two Canada Customs officials who are killed so the corpse can be smuggled into Vancouver. Mixed in with these mysteries is a local porn king, a network of wealthy connoisseurs obsessed with made-to-order snuff videos, and a slew of deformed bodies that are being dumped around the Gulf Islands. Then there's the madman the Mounties don't know about. The psycho to end all psychos, who has confounded them before. And this time he's looking for diabolical revenge...
Bed Of Nails book cover
#10

Bed Of Nails

2003

Isolated in Ashworth House, an asylum for the criminally insane, is the Ripper. He believes he's the notorious butcher who terrorized Whitechapel more than a century ago. He talks of time travel, infinity, and the occult. In the black hole of his imagination, he reenacts the crimes. In the darkness of his heart, he still craves the thrill of the kill. Thank God he can't escape. But with such an ingenious mind for murder, the Ripper doesn't have to—and the ghastly crimes he can manipulate from his padded cell are taking Zinc Chandler and the Special X investigators on a trail of unspeakable carnage that leads to the idyllic Cook Islands, where human sacrifice and cannibalism is more than a dark and perverted chapter in its history. It's tradition. Come and get it.
Swastika book cover
#11

Swastika

2005

As Special X, an elite team of investigators, gets closer to Swastika, a group of Aryans determined to cleanse society, they uncover a horrifying government conspiracy linked to World War II-era Germany and become hunted by relentless killers who want this secret buried forever. Original.
Kamikaze book cover
#12

Kamikaze

2006

Two killers—one targeting a survivor of the Enola Gray bomb crew that incinerated Hiroshima years ago, and one targeting those responsible for murdering her father during the fall of Hong Kong in 1941—make a horrifying discovery about each other that changes everything. Original.
Crucified book cover
#13

Crucified

2008

1944: the Ace of Clubs is on a top-secret solitary mission over rural Germany. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the plane is attacked by German Junkers and flight Lieutenant Fletch 'Wrath' Hannah has to give the command to bale out as the plane crashes over Nazi Germany. Present day: a bulldozer uncovers the remains of a long-lost Second World War bomber and so begins a treacherous international journey from the crucifixion of Jesus at Golgotha to the Crusades, the Inquisition, witch hunts, Satanism and the Reichskonkordat. Lawyer/historian Wyatt Rook and Liz Hannah must solve a series of whodunits, locked-room murders and biblical mysteries to unravel the Judas puzzle: the Achilles' heel of the New Testament. Blocking them at every turn is the Legionary of Christ, a present day crusader backed by a secret inquisition that will stop at nothing to make sure the Judas puzzle remains unsolved.
Red Snow book cover
#14

Red Snow

2009

A raging winter storm and a team of mercenaries have cut Whistler Mountain off from the rest of the world. Bent on bloody revenge, Mephisto attacks the members of Special X—the psycho hunters of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police—and that's just the start of his horrific plan. Red Snow is a three-ring circus of mystery, horror, and suspense. It has everything: whodunits and impossible crimes, psychological terror and police procedure. Let the games begin!

Author

Michael Slade
Michael Slade
Author · 15 books

Slade on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MountieNoir Slade on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MountieNoir Criminal lawyer MICHAEL SLADE has acted in over one hundred murder cases. His specialty is the law of insanity. He argued the last death penalty case in Canada’s highest court. Backed by his forensic experience, Slade’s Special X and Wyatt Rook thrillers fuse the genres of police and legal procedure, whodunit and impossible crime, suspense, history, and horror. Slade was guest of honor at both the Bloody Words crime convention and the World Horror Convention. As Time Out puts it, “A thin line separates crime and horror, and in Michael Slade’s thrillers, the demarcation vanishes altogether.” Slade was guest speaker at the international Police Leadership Conference and several RCMP regimental dinners. As Reader’s Digest puts it, “The Slade books have developed a strong following among police officers because of their strict adherence to proper police procedure.” For the stories behind his plots, visit Slade’s Morgue at www.specialx.net.

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