Elien Martel is a survivor, but surviving, he’s beginning to discover, isn’t the same thing as living. In the house he shares with his much older boyfriend, Elien spends his days trying to stay as far away from living as possible. Living, he has learned, means that sooner or later you’ll get hurt. When a member of Elien’s support group dies under strange circumstances, though, Elien finds himself in a web of bizarre coincidences. The responding officer turns out to be another member of Elien’s support group—a man named Mason, who has made no effort to hide his dislike of Elien. Then, just a few days later, Mason tries to kill Elien in front of dozens of witnesses. As violence ripples through Elien’s world, he begins to suspect that the coincidences are not coincidences at all. Something is at work behind the cascade of tragedies, something vicious and intelligent. Something that has wanted Elien for a long time. To defeat it, Elien will have to do what he fears most and face the darkness in his own past. Worse, he’ll have to take the risk of trying to live again.

Eli and Dag survived a monster. Two monsters, in fact. A year later, though, they’re still trying to settle into a ‘regular’ life. Dag is working hard in school. It’s not going great. Eli is working hard at…being a better Eli. He’s eating right. Most of the time. He’s thinking about exercise in healthy ways. He’s ok with how he looks, as long as he doesn’t walk past any mirrors. He goes out some nights, though. He goes across the lake, back to Bragg, where the monsters were. And he’s not sure why. He’s not sure what keeps calling him back. When a woman is brutally murdered and an eyewitness claims to have seen the killer transform into a mysterious light, Eli and Dag are forced to set aside their own problems and face a difficult truth: there is another monster out there. Worse, there doesn’t seem to be anybody else who can stop it from killing again. But not all monsters are the same, as Eli and Dag discover. And the most dangerous monster might be the one who can give you what you’ve always wanted.

Werewolves. Witchcraft. Wildlife. It’s all different in the bayou. A year after Eli and Dag survived their second encounter with a monster, things are finally going well. Really well—as far as Eli is concerned, anyway. He’s lost weight. His energy is up. His hair is on point. There are the little things, like the occasional flare-ups of temper and the urge to murder the kids down the street, but that’s just part of living by teenagers. Right? But when Posey, a man they met the year before, shows up on their doorstep a few nights before Halloween, everything starts to go wrong. Posey needs their help: his boyfriend has disappeared. Worse, his boyfriend might have committed murder. Oh, and even worse? His boyfriend is a werewolf—a special kind native to Louisiana, known as a rougarou. Eli and Dag begin their search for the missing rougarou, but it turns out, they’re not the only ones on the hunt: the mob, a gator-man, an implacable monster hunter, a witch, and a few bonus werewolves are all looking for him too. The rougarou, they learn, is the key to a ritual—a ceremony to summon a lwa, a powerful spirit. As time runs out, Eli and Dag must hurry to find the rougarou before the others. If they’re too late, the end of the world might be only the beginning.

You don’t have to die to get a second line, but it’s easier than getting married. Second Line is a collection of short stories connected to The DuPage Parish Mysteries. It includes the following: “Housewarming” Dag and Eli host a housewarming party at their home in New Orleans—but not without a few bumps along the way. This story is set after Stray Fears. “Housekeeping” Dag and Eli go about their lives while trying to avoid chores. This story is set after Cascade Hunger. “Second Line” A series of vignettes leading up to Dag and Eli’s wedding. This story is set after Lethal Control. Please note that the first two stories were distributed previously in various formats. “Second Line” is exclusively available in this collection.