Cryptid Fight Club

 There are creatures lurking in our world. Obscure creatures long relegated to myth and legend. They have been sighted by a lucky—or unlucky—few, some have even been photographed, but their existence remains unproven and unrecognized by the scientific community.

These creatures, long thought gone, have somehow survived; creatures from our nightmares haunting the dark places. They swim in our lakes and bays, they soar the night skies, they hunt in the woods. Some are from our past, and some from other worlds, and others that have always been with us—watching us, fearing us, hunting us.

These are the cryptids, and Systema Paradoxa tells their tales.

***

PI and retired MMA fighter Rufus Griffin pounds the streets of Vegas on the tail of an unfaithful spouse, but what he finds is a tale of another sort. One of intrigue and illicit fight clubs and bouts too incredulous to believe, even when he sees the fighters with his own eyes.

He keeps his head down and stays on task until he discovers those in the ring aren't there by choice. A victim of abuse himself, there is no way he can leave them to their fate, even when his official business concludes.

Rufus Griffin dives back into the underbelly of the Strip and comes out fighting.

Patrick Thomas has had stories published in over three dozen magazines and more than fifty anthologies. He’s written 30+ books including the fantasy humor series Murphy’s Lore, urban fantasy spin offs Fairy With A Gun, Fairy Rides The Lightning, Dead To Rites, Rites of Passage, Lore & Dysorder and two more in the Startenders series.



He co-writes the Mystic Investigators paranormal mystery series and The Assassins’ Ball, a traditional mystery, co-authored with John L. French. His darkly humorous advice column Dear Cthulhu includes the collections Cthulhu Knows Best, Have A Dark Day, Good Advice For Bad People, and Cthulhu Knows Best. His latest collection is the Steampunk-themed As The Gears Turn. A number of his books were part of the props department of the CSI television show and one was even thrown at a suspect. Fairy With A Gun was optioned by Laurence Fishburne’s Cinema Gypsy Productions. Act of Contrition, a story featuring his Soul For Hire hitman is in development as a short film by Top Men Productions. Drop by www.patthomas.net to learn more.