PSYCHO HERTZ: Katabasis of the Shadow

2350 AD. Neo Hertz is spiraling.



Once humanity’s last beacon of hope after the extinction events of the 21st century, the autonomous city-state has become a breeding ground for violence, corruption, and hubris.



Now a grotesquely orchestrated homicide threatens to extinguish its flame for good.



Enter Viktor Slade: Neo Hertz Homicide’s celebrity detective.



Brilliant and eccentric, petty and mighty, he’s a walking contradiction, a living paradox with a fetishistic devotion to “ancient” pop culture and Zombie Hollywood idolatry.



Cynicism and gallows humor are his crutches, defense mechanisms designed to counterbalance a hyper-vigilant genius that regularly grazes the fringe of hallucinatory madness.



But his opponent in this battle is no mere slash-and-dasher. His methods defy logic. His reach is impossible. His philosophy is simple: everyone is prey.



Viktor will have to navigate intense department friction, federal interference, and fend off rivals, rookies, and enemies in the sleazy media smear-machine, all while under the care of his beloved

German therapist, Dr. Gertrude Hengel.



As bodies pile up and conspiracies leak through the sewers of the bureaucratic machine, Viktor is as much predator as prey, forced to confront glamorous ghosts from Hollywood’s golden era, departmental enemies, and the terrifying possibility that the killer’s ultimate target isn’t his life… but his sanity.

The line separating Viktor’s genius from his madness is razor-thin. And it cuts deep.



The only thing Viktor needs to make his worst nightmare come true is a gentle push.



***



A horror-comedy psychological detective story.