A Cult of Questionable Motives

By K.M. Mayville

Los Angeles, 1947. Postwar America. Superhero comics are experiencing a renaissance. Pulp crime fiction is flying off the rack at five cents a pop. The silver screen and its stars are spawning crimes of passion from Santa Monica to Pasadena...

Detective Inspector Habitus, working out of London's fledgling Interpol office, is shaking trees for an heirloom involved in several high-profile murders across country and state lines. With the assistance of a homicide detective from Philadelphia, he's hot on the trail of The Kelvineer, a self-styled temperature-obsessed thief, who came into possession of the heirloom after being in the right place at the wrong time.

The Kelvineer, for his part, quickly deduces he's in over his head after finding the "heirloom" is a bundle of artifacts: a book made from skin, a box that causes hysteria, and a knife previously used in ritual sacrifices.

Allied in a moment of serendipity, Habitus and The Kelvineer work together to protect the collection from the other players on the board-players that include the Pettirossi crime family, two intelligence agencies, and a masonic secret society.

Just in time too, because there's a cult on the coast trying to summon something called The Shepherd of Gifts. And, judging by the trail of corpses left behind them, "gift" might be euphemism for something sinister.

A Cult of Questionable Motives is a Lovecraftian-flavored superhero romp through 1940s Los Angeles, and it's sure to delight fans of urban fantasy and crime noir alike.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0F888T441
• ISBN13: 9798879222050
• Release Date: May 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 348 Pages
• Weight: 0.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"