The Sharon Hayes Detective Series

     "True Self" is a crime story told in the first person of a Detective Sharon Hayes, "Styx" to her loved ones, and just "Hayes" for everyone else.  There aren't a lot of people who call her "Styx".      Hayes has a knack for investigating and solving crime.  She gets "hunches".  Her "hunches" are uncanny instincts that usually lead to some break-through in an investigation.  Her record of successfully concluding investigations in the Central Bronx Precinct's Vice Squad has just earned her a transfer to the Homicide Squad, a challenge she dives into on her very first case:  the murder of Juan Julio Santiago, a female impersonator and recovering alcoholic.      Hayes' instincts quickly lead her to discovering that there are ten ostensibly unrelated murders which are, in fact, related to each other.  She is able to convince the squad and its Lieutenant, Dave Speers, that each of the murders appears to be different because they are actually scripted for a series of pornographic "snuff" films.  She works with an exceptionally experienced team to run down leads and build a strong case which upholds her theory – while being threatened by an anonymous correspondent and knocked around and sexually assaulted by her own husband.      Hayes is complicated.      The story culminates in her abduction by the very people she is investigating.  She is close to becoming a star in her own "snuff" recording when she receives help from an old friend…and a new one.      Her troubles are not over, however, as she experiences more threats while she is in the hospital recovering from her trauma.  As these experiences take her between life and death, we get a glimpse of the world she returns to between lives.  It is a blissful garden of delights, at least until the moment where she is hauled back to her place and time by the talented medical team resuscitating her.      "True Self" is a story of motives and outcomes.  Or "Cause and Effect", if you prefer.  It is one distinct story contained in the larger reality of reincarnations.  It is a story frozen in a single location and time amongst universes of such.  It is a story that provokes thought.  Contemplation.  Perhaps a shift in beliefs.

Homicide Detective Sharon Hayes is back, but she has quit the NYPD and has hung out her own shingle. Her first case: her own. She has questions, lots of questions about what happened to her, her parents, her boss (and godfather), and her now dead relationship with Jimmy James, the forensics wunderkind. She decides to seek professional help and finds a psychiatrist who specializes in regression, using hypnotherapy. Sharon is convinced the answers she seeks are buried deep within her own brain...along with a thirty-something British woman who has been with her for as long as she can remember. The woman in her head used to be quiet, but since Sharon launched a career in crime-solving, she has become pushy and even verbally abusive. Sharon does not want Dr. Ronald Black to find her secret companion. She doesn't know that he found her in their first session and is grooming her to partner with him in publishing a major study that will catapult him into fame...and fortune. Sharon has to find her own cases at this point: she doesn't have much of a budget for advertising at this point in her solo career. She finds a trend she feels merits investigating: the murders, seeming unrelated, of several young women in the suburban area north of the Bronx, her stomping grounds. As she develops her case and is closing in on a suspect, she becomes entangled with dangerously sick and depraved criminals who wouldn't think twice about eliminating her...and she walks perilously close to their traps, unaware that her introduction to Dr. Black is a move which pulls her further into danger. She gets tough advice from the voice in her head. Will she take it and save both of them?

Sharon Hayes returns to the Bronx Central, NYPD, Homicide Division intending to beg for her old job back. Her old partner, Art Banks, is now in charge of the division. She walks into his office preparing to plead her case when Art says, without looking up from his desk, "You're hired." Sharon easily slips back into her old job, but she needs a new partner. Nikki Nobles, all 6'8" of her is waiting in the squadroom. Sharon takes an immediate liking to Nikki and finds herself blurting, "I am going to need a new parter." And that's all it takes. Sharon, or "Styx" as her friends call her, and Nikki are now partners. Their first case, the grisly murder of an aged but very well preserved prostitute, leads them to a very tangled web of serial murders and more: there is ritual involved in each murder case they uncover. The dead prostitute turns out to have had several previous identities, each of which can be traced to murder and mayhem going back fifty years and more. They find themselves workig with the U.S. Marshalls, Marshall Drew Dryer by name, and Sharon picks up on something odd between Nikki and Drew...do they know each other? Are they working to solve the crimes or cover them up? Working with Val Smyth-Colson, the voice in her head, Styx plies her detective skills to determine what exactly is going on, and finds it. And where would this search eventually end? Why, with her murderous and demented birth father, of course: Denny Doyle is back, and he is not alone...

Sharon Hayes is back with a vengeance...and she's not alone. The voice in her head has given her some dire information: when Sharon killed her father, only his body died. His spirit has taken up residence in her head, and it's already crowded enough. Dewayne Doyle, Sharon's birth father, has always been an evil man, but now he is a malevolent spirit. Sharon turns to her partner at the NYPD Bronx Central Homicide squad: Archie Chong. She confides her terrible secret to Archie, who doesn't blink an eye. "I will call on my fangxiangshi spirit," he says. "We will have an exorcism." Archie has learned the skills of ancient China from his father; it's his side gig after work as a homicide detective, after all. Dewey Doyle is not their only problem. His very much alive cohorts in crime are still afoot, and they've each captured some innocent souls during their years as brutisha and vicious serial killers. They have picked up some not-so-innocent passengers, too, and as the story climaxes, Sharon, and her allies discover the source of their power to possess the souls of those they kill: some very old gods are still in the world, turning evil men to their wills. Will Archie's ancient magic be a match for their power?