Polterheist

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?

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.