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.

***

In the heyday of the Roaring Twenties, Trevor Kinkaid's house parties were the highlight of the social season, with lively music, the most fashionable of clothes, excellent food, and, of course, illicit drink.

Not just the place to see and be seen, but the place to be noticed.

But when a fresh new face catches Trevor's eye and she later turns up dead, no one sees a thing. Or do they? As the cream of society look on their host with speculation, his protests of innocence fall on jaded ears.

Even with some unexpected help, can the local detective unearth the truth in time? Or will the real perpetrator go to ground?

Aaron Rosenberg