Smoke and Shadows

The Smoke trilogy is a followup to Tanya Huff's Blood Books. It takes place a few years after the end of the Blood series, in Vancouver, and features Tony Foster as the lead character. His ex Henry also appears in the series.

Tony is a 20something gay production assistant on the Vampire Detective Series show Darkest Night, who discovers that their "special effects wizard" Arra Pelindrake is an actual wizard. And Tony is one as well. After they fight off the invasion of a Shadowlord from Arra's own world, Tony is left alone to deal with any and all supernatural things that happen to the Darkest Night cast and crew.

The books are:
 * Smoke and Shadows
 * Smoke and Mirrors
 * Smoke and Ashes

There is also a published short story, "See Me", in the anthology Those Who Fight Monsters - Tales of Occult Detectives


 * A House Divided: Smoke and Mirrors.
 * All Part of the Show: Used at one point to keep the police from getting involved in the events of the book. "The only supernatural events happening here are the ones on my set."
 * Badass Normal: Chester Bane. In the words of Henry, himself a badass vampire prince, "CB is a law unto himself."
 * Bi the Way: Henry for sure. Lee is either bisexual or a Invisible to Gaydar, and this is debated throughout the series.
 * He was definitely attracted to Leah...
 * Being thousands of years old, Leah is amused that people think that there is only straight or gay.
 * In the short story See Me, set several years after Smoke and Ashes, Lee is canonically established as being bisexual, but.
 * Brother-Sister Incest: Stephen and Cassie
 * Chekhov's Coffee Shop, even plays on the page quote.
 * Closet Key: Tony proves to be this for Lee.
 * Demonic Possession
 * Deus Sex Machina: Leah, Henry, and Tony have to have a threesome in order to save the world (or for Tony to communicate with a demonlord who can't perceive anyone who isn't attracted to his handmaiden.)
 * Distracted by the Sexy: Leah uses this often.
 * Dude in Distress: Even if he's not a girl, and not incompetent, Lee is the Mary Jane to Tony's Peter Parker. (He certainly does seem to get targeted because of Tony.) And boy, does Lee ever get sick of it.
 * Driven to Suicide: Smoke and Mirrors
 * Even the Guys Want Him: The Running Gag is that "evil is always after [Tony's] ass!" Defied in the third book, where
 * Everyone Can See It: Tony and Lee's mutual crushes on each other. Unresolved Sexual Tension abounds there.
 * First-Person Smartass: Hilariously so.
 * Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Henry
 * Functional Magic: Wizards use an Inherent gift and Rule Magic to manipulate energies. There's also some theurgy (the Light of Yeramathia)
 * Genre Savvy: Most of the characters work in TV production and Henry writes romance novels. They are very much aware of the tropes in their lives. CB is even willing to lampshade how cliche and derivative the plot of the second book is.
 * Haunted Headquarters: Caulfield House, where Darkest Night is filming an episode.
 * Heroic Bastard: Henry
 * High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Caulfield House's ghost/demon denziens, Leah's backstory, Arra's backstory.
 * Ho Yay: tons of it between Tony and Henry, Tony and Zev, Tony and Lee, even between Tony and Jack.
 * Also a bit between Henry and CB in the second book, implied as the reason for the tension between Tony and Henry in the third book.
 * In-story, there is apparently a slash fandom for Lee's and Mason's characters.
 * I Always Wanted to Say That: In the third book, someone makes a comment about "six kinds of hell breaking loose and coming your way." When called on it, he cheerfully admits he's just been waiting for his chance.
 * I See Dead People: Smoke and Mirrors has almost everyone other than Tony seeing them by the end of the book. Graham is also a medium.
 * James Bondage
 * Lampshade Hanging: tons and tons of it, given the subject matter; Tony and his pals, after all, work on a Vampire Detective Series.
 * Large Ham: Mason Reed, who plays Raymond Dark on Darkest Night
 * Living Lie Detector: Kevin Groves. Naturally, he's a tabloid reporter. Unfortunately for him this is a case of Useless Superpowers, since many of the truths he uncovers are so fantastical that the only place they can get printed is a tabloid.
 * Magical Computer
 * Nakama: C B Productions.
 * Nigh Invulnerability: Leah, thanks to an "oops, I wrote that wrong" moment her demon lord had, can't be injured or age. When a demon draws a wee bit of blood from her, she's terrified.
 * Our Demons Are Different
 * Our Ghosts Are Different
 * Perky Goth: Amy
 * Protectorate CB Productions
 * Red Shirt and Mauve Shirt
 * Sidekick: Lee plays the show's sidekick. Henry is now Tony's sidekick. Also, pretty much everyone wants to be Tony's.
 * Small Name, Big Ego: Mason.
 * Spirit Advisor: Stephen and Cassie to Tony
 * Spoiled Brat: Ashley and Brianna both.
 * Tabloid Melodrama: something Lee has to worry about.
 * Telekinesis: one of Tony's skills. Only works in one direction.
 * The Obi-Wan: Arra, subverted in that she doesn't die, just leaves the dimension.
 * The Power of Friendship
 * The Unmasqued World: by the middle of book 2, a large number of people are well aware of the supernatural goings-on and what Tony is. And they want in on the action. By book 3 they are a fighting Nakama.
 * They Battle Demons!
 * Undead Child: Stephen, Cassie, and Karl
 * Vampire Detective Series: Darkest Night, the Show Within the Show. "Hey! We've got the highest numbers of any vampire detective show in syndication!" "That and a buck seventeen will buy you a bad cup of coffee."
 * Weirdness Magnet: CB Productions, but there's a good reason for it.
 * Wizarding School: Utterly subverted, since Tony's new mentor Arra takes off for her own dimension and he has to learn via trial, error, and the Magical Computer she left him.