The Prof Croft Series: Books 0-4 (Prof Croft Box Sets Book 1)
Page 99
First and foremost, thanks to DC Comics and the creators of John Constantine. The wise-cracking, chain-smoking, trench coat-wearing, no-shit-taking wizard gripped this teenager’s imagination by the throat and never quite let go.
The supernatural detective type would later become popularized in genre fiction, Harry Dresden being the paragon, and deservedly so. More brilliance followed in the characters of John Taylor, Sandman Slim, Peter Grant, Alex Verus, and others. Indeed, Prof Croft joins the end of a long conga line, and I’m grateful to those authors who not only got the dance going, but made it so much fun. Appreciative nods to Prof Croft’s forebears appear throughout the series.
The Prof Croft series is set in an alternate near future following a financial crash. This was my excuse to play time-traveler and reimagine a period in the city’s history that remains of immense fascination to me.
That would be the 1970s, when a struggling New York featured swaths of urban decay alongside cauldrons of artistic creativity and pockets of dizzying wealth. There were large cutbacks in city services, including police and public safety, while crime, corruption, and the vice trades boomed. So a more dangerous setting that featured multiple points of power, some official, most not, and of course many spaces for supernatural baddies to operate.
For research into the setting, I leaned heavily on Pete Hamill’s Downtown: My Manhattan, Jonathan Mahler’s Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning, and Peter Shapiro’s Turn the Beat Around. All stellar nonfiction books. And though the last one deals with disco, its introduction encapsulates that period as well as anything I came across.
A big kudos the team at Damonza.com who have designed all the Prof Croft covers to date, including the box set. They’ve been amazing to work with. Various talented people have contributed to the books over the years, including Red Adept Editing, my beta and advanced readers, most notably Beverly Collie, Mark Denman, and Bob Singer, and proof readers Sharlene Magnarella and Donna Rich. Many thanks to all of them. Naturally, any errors or inelegance are this author’s alone.
I also want to thank James Patrick Cronin for his superb narration of the Prof Croft audiobooks. Those books, including samples, can be found at Audible.com.
None of this would be possible without the Strange Brigade, my dedicated fan group whose enthusiasm serves as motivation jet fuel, book after book.
Finally, thank you, intrepid reader, for embarking on this journey with the professor.
And it’s only the beginning…
Best Wishes,
Brad Magnarella
bradmagnarella.com
Croftverse Catalogue
PROF CROFT
Book of Souls
Demon Moon
Blood Deal
Purge City
Death Mage
Black Luck
Power Game
Druid Bond
Night Rune
BLUE WOLF
Blue Curse
Blue Shadow
Blue Howl
Blue Venom
Blue Blood
Blue Storm
Author’s Amazon Page
Author’s Website
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