W.M. Akers is a novelist, playwright, and game designer. He is the author of the mystery novels Critical Hit, Westside, and Westside Saints; the creator of the bestselling games Deadball: Baseball With Dice and Comrades: A Revolutionary RPG; and the curator of the history newsletter Strange Times. He lives in Philadelphia, but hasn't traded in his Mets cap yet. Learn more about his work at wmakers.net.
"""Highly recommended for readers who like their genres so bent that they flow into each other, where the fantasy is so dark it’s nearly horror and the mystery uncovers rot and magic in equal measure."" — Library Journal (starred review) on Westside Lights ""The characters and setting of 1923 work perfectly here and the story is one you want to keep reading along."" — Red Carpet Crash on Westside Lights “[In] W. M. Akers’s superb debut Westside…his research is excellent…his prose sharply crystalline.” — New York Times “The Alienist meets The City & The City in this brilliant debut that mixes fantasy and mystery. Gilda Carr’s ‘tiny mysteries’ pack a giant punch.” — David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of Murder as a Fine Art, on Westside “Akers’ debut novel is an addictively readable fusion of mystery, dark fantasy, alternate history, and existential horror...It’s like a literary shot of Prohibition-era rotgut moonshine—bracing, quite possibly hallucination-inducing, and unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before...The illegitimate love child of Algernon Blackwood and Raymond Chandler.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) on Westside ""The Westside novels are splendid mixtures of traditional mystery and other-Earth fantasy."" — Booklist"