Baltimore has monsters.
Jose is twelve.
This is going to be a problem.
For most people, Baltimore is crab cakes, rowhouses, traffic, and baseball.
For the Gracanjo, Baltimore is a battlefield.
Hidden beneath the city’s ordinary streets is a war no one talks about—a war against Slakes, Mardocks, Conculos, Sinciputs, and every other nightmare that slips through the cracks of reality looking for humans to eat.
Jose has just become one of the Gracanjo: humanity’s secret defenders. He’s young, scared, undertrained, and paired with Chris, a legendary warrior known as The Blur, who believes monster hunting requires three things:
A weapon.
A death wish.
And absolutely no emotional attachments.
Chris has rules for surviving the job. Twelve of them, actually.
The problem is, Jose is terrible at following rules.
When a monster commander named Bose murders a man and leaves a message written in blood, the Gracanjo learn that an ancient artifact called the Tinker’s Box has gone missing. If Bose finds it first, he can help unleash an army of intelligent monsters powerful enough to overrun Baltimore—and then a whole lot more than Baltimore.
Now Jose and Chris have to find the Box before Bose does.
Unfortunately, their allies include a suspicious Slake with questionable loyalty, two terrifying Conculos who may or may not be on their side, a bar owner who keeps helping even though she definitely should know better, and a janitor at Johns Hopkins who may be the most important man in the city.
Their enemies include a brutal monster army, an organized crime boss, a sadistic tiny trap-maker, and one extremely angry commander who would very much like to kill everyone involved.
As Jose is hunted through the city, trapped, beaten, rescued, and forced to face the possibility that he may not be brave enough for the life he’s been given, he has to decide what kind of guardian he wants to become.
Because the monsters are coming.
The commandments are breaking.
And Baltimore’s last hope might be a terrified twelve-year-old with a weapon in his hand and no idea what he’s doing.
The 12 Commandments is the first book in the Defense of Reality series, a supernatural action comedy packed with monsters, mayhem, found family, brutal fights, dark humor, and one very dangerous city worth saving.
Perfect for readers who like urban fantasy with heart, horror with jokes, and heroes who are absolutely not ready for the job.