The only thing worse than an assassin is a zombie assassin.

That's what I find myself up against when a celebrity hypnotist turns up dead on Christmas. Except this killer is no ordinary zombie - and I should know. The name's Cisco Suarez, and besides being the Miami Police Department's resident supernatural consultant, I'm a practicing necromancer.

With a series of murders threatening to reveal the existence of magic, anti-animist militias capture the public heart, and the streets are rife with unrest and vigilantes that aren't me. To add to my growing list of distractions, a tenacious FBI agent swears I'm the infamous Shadow Man and uses increasingly hostile tactics to uncover the truth. Meanwhile, my girls Fran, Darcy, and Milena all find themselves in existential trouble.

Against all that, I still have a killer to find. So I enlist the help of a curious dog, dig up an old grave, and tie the zombie's origins to the 12 days of Christmas. Talk about holiday cheer. Is it Christmas season or hunting season - and who's hunting who?

If you like Jim Butcher, Shayne Silvers, Steve McHugh, or John Conroe, then you are going to love Domino Finn's contribution to the smart-talking MC that's perpetually stuck between a rock and a hard place.