Esther Diamond Novel Series

R.I.P. = Reanimated, Infernal, and Pretty damn dangerous 

Struggling actress Esther Diamond, whose year got off to a rough start (what with incarceration, unemployment, and mystical death curses), finally catches a break when she lands an acting job.

She’s hired to reprise her guest role as prostitute Jilly C-Note on The Dirty Thirty, a TV crime drama about depravity and corruption in the New York Police Department. Esther’s ex-sometime boyfriend, NYPD’s Detective Connor Lopez, hates that show with undying passion — especially after Esther convinces her narcissistic co-star to shadow Lopez on the job, in order to add verisimilitude to his performance as a morally bankrupt cop.

But Esther’s fellow thespian is her best bet for keeping an eye on Lopez 24/7—and, more to the point, on Lopez’s new partner, Detective Quinn. Esther and her friend Max, a 350-year-old mage whose day job is protecting the city from Evil, suspect Quinn of being involved in the latest mystical mayhem to menace Manhattan…

Corpses suddenly aren’t staying quite as dead as they should.

While Max and Esther try to determine what Quinn’s role is in the supernatural reanimation of the deceased downtown, a dangerous foe with deadly intent changes everyone’s dinner plans one cold winter night…

Esther Diamond’s year gets off to a rocky start when NYPD’s Detective Connor Lopez, who slept with her and then didn’t call, shuts down the Little Italy restaurant where Esther works between acting jobs and gets her arrested. Once she’s out of handcuffs, Esther takes a small role in a grad student’s film project in Chinatown—where her friend, semi-retired hit man Lucky Battistuzzi, is hiding out in a Chinese-Italian mortuary.

Esther and Lucky soon realize that something strange is going on in Chinatown, where mysterious gourmet fortune cookies are inflicting deadly mystical curses on the hapless victims who receive them as gifts—and before long, Esther learns that Detective Lopez is one of the recipients. As preparations heat up for the Chinese New Year, when the icy streets will be filled with costumed lion dancers, firecrackers, and dense crowds, Esther and Lucky summon the help of their friend Max, a semi-immortal mage, to help them save Chinatown and Lopez—though he doesn’t deserve it—from the menace of a maniacal murderer.

The Misfortune Cookie is the sixth installment of the acclaimed Esther Diamond series.

In the days leading up to Christmas, struggling actress Esther Diamond is working as a singing-and-dancing elf at Fenster & Co, a major Manhattan department store. As if dealing with hordes of holiday shoppers isn’t bad enough, Esther’s ex-almost-boyfriend, Detective Connor Lopez, is on the scene investigating a series of mob-related truck hijackings of Fenster’s merchandise. Semi-retired hitman Lucky Battistuzzi is also nosing around, since the mob resents being implicated in thefts they didn’t commit. But when supernatural mishaps occur, Esther realizes this is more than the usual holiday insanity—it’s time to call in her friend Max, Manhattan’s resident mage.

Esther and Max discover that Fenster’s has become the staging ground for the rebirth of an ancient demon that’s plotting to escape its mystical prison on the winter solstice. As dimensional barriers crumble, can Esther rescue her fellow elves, save her city from demonic disaster, and collect her paycheck in time to make rent?

Polterheist is the thrilling fifth installment of the Esther Diamond series.

Everything you know about vampires is wrong, as struggling actress Esther Diamond discovers after taking a job as a victim in The Vampyre, an off-Broadway cult hit in Manhattan. Not only is she besieged by fang-wearing vampire groupies, fanatical anti-vampire activists, and the bloodsucking paparazzi, but she also has to put up with broody lead actor Daemon Ravel, who claims to be a real vampire. But when one of Daemon’s fan girls turns up dead—and drained of all her blood—Esther is determined to help. She turns to her friend Max, a 350-year-old magician. Meanwhile, Detective Connor Lopez, Esther’s ex-almost-boyfriend, is convinced that Esther herself is the blood-sucking killer’s next target.

Vamparazzi is the exciting fourth installment of the acclaimed Esther Diamond series.

“…gripping and enticing…” —Crash and Burn Reviews

Acting jobs don’t grow on fire escapes, so struggling actress Esther Diamond is outraged when her guest role as a hooker on controversial TV drama The Dirty Thirty is jeopardized by zombies, angry spirits, and a voodoo curse. Meanwhile, the talented teens Esther is coaching at a Harlem cultural center are also being attacked by the sinister supernatural power that’s spreading through Manhattan. Since the show must go on, Esther boldly helps her friend, the 350-year-old sorcerer Dr. Maximillian Zadok, combat the Evil forces at work—all while attempting to salvage her love life with her would-be lover, Detective Connor Lopez. But will Esther’s courage backfire and end up leading her to become a human sacrifice on the altar of the sinister supernatural powers that are taking over New York City?

Unsympathetic Magic is the exciting third installment of the Esther Diamond series.

“In Laura Resnick’s Doppelgangster, the New York actress is ‘resting’ between roles by working as a singing waitress at a Manhattan mob restaurant because wiseguys tip well. Then duplicated gangsters appear, bullets start flying, and it’s up to Esther and her friend Max the Magician to fight Evil by stopping the gang war before it starts killing the wrong people. And if she has time, maybe Esther can actually keep a hot date with her hunky detective friend Lopez, who doesn’t believe in magic. Yet. Unplug the phone and settle down for a fast and funny read.”
—New York Times bestselling author Mary Jo Putney

Doppelgangster is the exciting second novel of the Esther Diamond series.

Esther Diamond, a struggling actress in New York, seems destined to attract supernatural mayhem.

When bizarre magical disappearances disrupt shows around the city, Esther receives a mysterious warning not to go on with her off-Broadway show. Desperate to stay on stage rather than resort to waiting tables, Esther turns to her new BFF, Dr. Maximillian Zadok, a 350-year-old mage whose day job is protecting New York from Evil. Determined to get to the bottom of this mystery without losing her job, Esther and Max team up with a conjuring cowboy, a banker with stage aspirations, and a flock of fearless drag queens. Also on the case is Detective Connor Lopez, a sexy cop who has a thing for Esther, but who fears that she and Max may be a bigger problem than the vanishing performers.

Since the show must go on—and the astronomical rent must be paid—Esther, Max, and their friends pursue Evil to its lair in their fearless determination to find the missing performers and restore harmony to the city that never sleeps. Disappearing Nightly is the thrilling first novel of the Esther Diamond series.