Nightside

Taylor is the name, John Taylor. My card says I'm a detective, but what I really am is an expert on finding lost things. It's part of the gift I was born with as a child of the Nightside. I left there a long time ago, with my skin and sanity barely intact. Now I make my living in the sunlit streets of London. But business has been slow lately, so when Joanna Barrett showed up at my door, reeking of wealth, asking me to find her runaway teenage daughter, I didn't say no. Then I found out exactly where the girl had gone. The Nightside. That square mile of Hell in the middle of the city, where it's always three A.M. Where you can walk beside myths and drink with monsters. Where nothing is what it seems, and everything is possible. I swore I'd never return. But there's a kid in danger and a woman depending on me. So, I have no choice - I'm going home.

John Taylor works in the Nightside-the gaudy, neon noir, secret heart of London, where it's always three in the morning, where gods and monsters make deals and seek pleasures they won't find anywhere else. He has a gift for finding things. And sometimes what he's hired to locate can be very, very dangerous indeed. Right now, for example, he's searching for The Unholy Grail, the cup that Judas drank from at the Last Supper. It corrupts all who touch it-but it also gives enormous power. So he's not the only one hunting. Angels, devils, sinners, and saints-they're all out there, tearing apart The Nightside, seeking the dark goblet. And it's only a matter of time until they realize that the famous John Taylor, the man with the gift for finding things, can lead them straight to it...

The name's John Taylor. I work the garish streets of the Nightside-the hidden heart of London where it's always three A.M., where inhuman creatures and otherworldly gods walk side by side in the endless darkness of the soul. I have a talent for finding things. People... property... no problem. But now I'm after something different. A local diva called the Nightingale has cut herself off from her family and friends, and I've been hired to find out the reason. I'm also wondering why her suicide-prone fans think she has a voice to die for. Literally. To get the truth, I'll have to lend an ear to the most enticingly beautiful and deadly voice in all of the Nightside-and survive.

John Taylor is the name. I work the Nightside. Only in that dark heart of London where it's always three A.M., where human and inhuman can feed their darkest desires, do I feel at home. Probably because I was born there. What I do is find things-people, objects-and in this case, the truth about the origins of the Nightside. That's what Lady Luck has hired me to investigate. But the more I dig, the more I discover, not about the Nightside but about the great question in my life: exactly who-and what-was my long-vanished mother. Paying jobs are one thing. Personal quests are another. And I've been warned that uncovering the facts about dear old mum could be a very bad thing, not just for the Nightside but for all of existence. Still I can't stop... I'm John Taylor. Finding things is who I am. It's what I do. Whatever the consequences...

I'm John Taylor. I was born in the Nightside, that square mile in the hidden center of London where it is always the hour of the wolf, where gods and monsters walk side by side, and where every dark question ever asked can be answered-for a price. I left for a while, but I did come back, to make my living doing what I do better than anyone else: finding things-lost or stolen, real or imaginary. Recently, I found the most dangerous thing of all: the true identity of my long-gone mother. Turns out she's a being who's been around since before the dawn of history. Then, she created the Nightside-and now, for her own warped reasons, she intends to destroy it. To stop her before she even gets started, I've got to do some hard traveling-back in Time, through endless eons, into the very distant-and probably deadly-past...

My name is John Taylor. I'm a PI for hire in the Nightside, the dark and corrupt city within the city of London. Where the sun never shines and where pleasure and horror are always on sale-for the right price. Not a nice place to visit or a nice place to live. So you wouldn't think I would care that it was about to be destroyed, by none other than my very own long-missing, not-quite-human mom. But I do. I was born here, I live here, and I got friends here. They might not all be acceptable in polite company, but they're my friends, nonetheless. I know that I'm the only one who can stop her. The trick is, how to do it without fulfilling this prophecy that says whatever action I take, not only is the Nightside doomed, but the rest of the world will soon follow...

The name's John Taylor. I'm a PI, though what I really do is find things that are lost. I work the Nightside, the city within the city of London, where the sun never rises and where the human and inhuman go to get their kicks, provided they're willing to pay the price in whatever currency the seller demands. In the wake of the war that almost brought the Nightside to total ruin, there's a power vacuum begging to be filled - and some think I should take charge. I don't agree. Neither does the immortal known as the Griffin. Wealthy beyond reason, he has his own ideas about who should be running things. Still, when his granddaughter - and designated heir - is kidnapped, he calls on me to find her. But someone - or something - is blocking my special gift. So, this time, I'm going to have to do my job the hard way. And quickly, or the Griffin will have to choose a new heir...

John Taylor's the name. I'm a PI working a small slice of mystical real estate in the hidden center of London. It's a place where the sun refuses to rise, where monsters and men walk side by side. And if you want something found in the Nightside, I'm your man. The editor of the Unnatural Inquirer - the Nightside's most notorious rag - has offered me one million pounds to find a man who claims to have evidence of the Afterlife stored on a DVD. The Inquirer made the guy a sweet deal. Then he and the disc vanished. I don't know if the disc is on the level - but for a million pounds, I'm willing to believe. Trouble is, someone else - someone very powerful - is on the trail, too. And who - or what - ever it is, is deadly determined to find the disc first...

I'm John Taylor. I work as a PI out of the Nightside, that secret center of London where clocks always read three AM, where terrible things happen with predictable regularity, and where the always-dark streets are full of people partying like Judgement Day will never come. Now it may have arrived. God's own enforcer, the righteous engine of destruction known as the Walking Man, has come to the Nightside. He's a being whose sole purpose is the elimination of the wicked and the guilty-and given the nature of the Nightside, there's a good chance that once he gets started, he'll just keep on until there's no one left. So the Authorities have hired me to stop him. Legend has it that he can't be killed. I'm very much hoping that the legend isn't true...

In the Nightside-that hidden area in the middle of London where time stands still at three A.M. and the sun won't rise to refute it-nightmares go walking in borrowed flesh, and not everything that looks back at you with human eyes is really human. I'm John Taylor, a PI with a knack for finding things, helping those the Nightside has chewed up and is about to spit out. All things considered, my life lately had been bright, even in this shadowy place. So it was only a matter of time before everything hit the fan. Walker-the powerful, ever-present, never-to-be-trusted agent who runs the Nightside on behalf of the authorities-paid me a visit. He told me he is dying and that he, too, has a job for me. An important job. His.

Welcome to the Nightside. For those foolish enough to seek it out, it's a literal tourist trap, populated by beings, human and otherwise, who have never seen the sun rise. A place where your dreams can come true-as long as your nightmares don't get you first. My name is John Taylor. I'm a PI with a special talent for finding lost things. I'm also the reluctant owner of a very special-and dangerous-weapon: Excalibur, the legendary sword (which isn't what you think it is, and never was). Excalibur chose me, and to find out why, I'll have to consult the last defenders of Camelot, a group of knights who dwell in a place that some find more frightening than the Nightside. London Proper. It's been years since I've been back-and there are good reasons for that...

In the secret heart of London, under the cover of endless darkness, is the Nightside. But enter at your own risk. The party animals who live here may be as inhuman as their appetites... My name is John Taylor. The Nightside is my home, and I've got a brand new full-time job there (in addition to my private eye work) as Walker-the Voice of the Authorities. I'm also marrying the love of my life, Suzie Shooter, the Nightside's most fearsome bounty-hunter. But nothing comes easy here. Not life. Not death. And for certain, not happily-ever-after. Before I can say "I do," I have one more case to solve as a private eye-and my first assignment as Walker. Both jobs would be a lot easier to accomplish if I weren't on the run, from friends and enemies alike. And if my bride-to-be weren't out to collect the bounty on my head...

New York Times bestselling author Simon R. Green returns to the "bizarre and gleefully dangerous backdrop" (Jim Butcher, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Dresden Files) of the Nightside with this landmark collection of short fiction. Welcome to the Nightside. It's the secret heart of London, beating to its own rhythm, pumping lifeblood through the veins of its streets and alleys hidden in eternal darkness, where creatures of the night congregate, and where the sun is afraid to shine. It's the place to go if you're looking to indulge the darker side of your nature-and to hell with the consequences. Tales from the Nightside presents ten macabre mysteries that shine a dim beam into the neighborhood's darkest corners to reveal things that should never come to light. Take a walk with such deadly and dangerous denizens of the Nightside as Razor Eddie, Dead Boy, and Larry Oblivion as they encounter things even more inhuman and inhumane than they are. And join John Taylor, the PI with a knack for finding lost things, as he confronts Sir Francis Varney, King of the Vampires. There may be nothing to be afraid of in the dark, but there's plenty to be afraid of in the Nightside...