History Literature / TeddyLondon

* AnAxeToGrind: Paul Morcey killed his first monster with a fire axe.

->''"He's a private investigator with an eerie knack for solving eerie crimes. He's got a gun named Betty, a knife named Veronica, and the strangest contacts - spiritual and otherwise. When it comes to things that go bump in the night, call Teddy London, P I….''

* GeneticMemory: Combined with GhostMemory - over the course of his adventures, London learns how to tap the memories and abilities of his genetic ancestors, whose spirits remain with him.

* TheMasqueradeWillKillYourDatingLife: Lai Wan's first fiancé, Jimmy Lu, left her because he couldn't take being with someone with powers; it didn't help that his mother was also a psychic (though she relied more on the old superstitions to read the future) and he'd never accepted her ways.
* NotQuiteDead:

** Jorhsa and his ilk don't drink blood, they just live forever by deliberately killing others in an up close and personal manner (guns don't count - they put too much "distance" between the killer and the victim), or by killing a lot of people at once, which results in the victim's soul and life energies flowing into them; if the killer takes responsibility for what they've done, and ''wants'' to hold onto the power they gained from killing, those energies will heal and sustain them and, over the centuries, cause the fading of their ethnic traits (as Jorhsa says, "Once you've killed all men, you become all men..."). ''Anyone'' can become a vampire this way. [[spoiler:Including Teddy London.]] However, those who can't handle the voices in their head that come along with the souls absorbed won't be able to hold onto the energy, and revert to being normal humans.
** It's also shown that vampires whose bodies are still intact can be resurrected by having another vampire kill multiple victims around them, allowing them to absorb the energy and heal.
** By the time of ''Some Things Come Back'', both [[spoiler:London]] and Martin Tabor have learned how to use this energy to perform such incredible feats as flight and energy attacks.

* YourSoulIsMine: Essentially how the vampire transformation works - killing someone in an up-and-personal way channels their life energies (their soul) into the killer, who will hear their victim's voice in their head afterward. Only a few people can actually handle the strain of maintaining so many voices and so much extra life-force; those who can't will go insane and, in extreme cases, too much will cause the vampire to burn out and be disintegrated.

Henderson later released two new books (set between ''Some Things Never Die'' and ''The Thing That Darkness Hides''), and a handful of related anthologies, prior to [[AuthorExistenceFailure his death in 2014]]:

* ShoutOut: London's gun and knife are named for two characters in ''Franchise/ArchieComics''; a flashback in ''The Only Thing to Fear'' reveals why London did it.

** ''The Things That Are Not There'': [[spoiler: Q'talu is defeated, but nearly two million people die in the Conflagration, including London's best friend Timothy Bodenfelt, who's at ground zero of the explosion. Other casualties in the book are his aid Joseph Bago (AKA Joey Bago'Donuts), killed by the monsters, and Michael Coleman, who dies of heart failure that very night.]]

* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: ''Some Things Never Die'' implies that fate caused London's family up to die in part to set him up for his role as The Destroyer.

** ''The Things That Are Not There'': spoiler: Q'talu is defeated, but nearly two million people die in the Conflagration, including London's best friend Timothy Bodenfelt, who's at ground zero of the explosion. Other casualties in the book are his aid Joseph Bago (AKA Joey Bago'Donuts), killed by the monsters, and Michael Coleman, who dies of heart failure that very night.

* ActionDad: Teddy, now a father of two, in ''Some Things Come Back''.

* DreamLand: The Dream Plane, a realm where anything is possible because YourMindMakesItReal.
* DreamWeaver: Some people, such as the antagonists of ''The Thing That Darkness Hides'' and ''All Things Under the Moon'', can alter their physical selves and other elements of the normal world through access to the Dream Plane.

* LegacyCharacter: The Destroyer, the one prophesied to turn back Q'talu; Teddy London is the third known one. ''Some Things Come Back'' reveals another: the Confessor, one who wanders the world, hearing the sins of everyone but bound never to share them; when one dies, another takes up their ring and assumes the identity, gaining the collective memories of all of their predecessors.
* LossOfIdentity: An effect of becoming the Confessor, though it takes a while.

** ''Some Things Come Back'' reveals that Martin Tabor survived his injuries in ''Some Things Never Die''.

* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: [[spoiler:Absorbing life-force becomes this for London after he releases the energies he got during the Conflagration. At one point during his adventures in China, he drains the energies from the ground around him as a last resort to heal himself, but while he isn't ''personally'' negatively affected, he is horrified by the consequences this has for the land he drained and remembers why it's a bad idea.]]

* HealingFactor: Most of London's adversaries have this.

* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:''The Only Thing To Fear'' reveals that Q'talu, whose access to Earth was cut off by London in the battle of Elizabeth, New Jersey, isn't entirely dead. While the dimensional portal was closed, the portion of it that was blown to bits stayed on Earth and is responsible for the planet's attempted destruction almost two years later.]]

* PsychicPowers: London develops these as a result of his experiences. Lai Wan gained psychometry when she died on the operating table and got better.

* EldritchAbomination: Q'talu, the monstrous BigBad of the first book.

* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Most deaths in the series. About the only one to die cleanly is Dr. Michael Coleman, who suffers a heart attack the night Q'talu crossed over.

* HeroicSacrifice: While ultimately averted, London is fully prepared to die to stop Q'talu.

* SheatheYourSword: The best approach when dealing with the werewolf. [[spoiler:London and Jhong both talk the werewolf down rather than trying to attack it during their first encounters with the beast. The next time London does this, it's what ultimately leads to the monster's death.]]
* ShoutOut: London's gun and knife are named for two characters in ''Franchise/ArchieComics''.
* StraightGay: Wally Barnes, who doesn't act flamboyant or anything; in fact, the only hint that he's gay is that his lover, who died in the Conflagration, was named Barry.

* TheChosenOne: The Destroyer, a role filled by some unsuspecting soul, chosen by fate to stand against Q'talu whenever it tries to enter this dimension. Teddy London is one of at least three known Destroyers in history, after [[spoiler:Johrsa]] and King Solomon. [[spoiler:Zeus claims he and the other Confessors chose them.]]

* HerosEvilPredecessor: [[spoiler: Johrsa, the first Destroyer and now king of the vampires in ''Some Things Never Die'', who defeated Q'talu with faith-based magic and absorbed all the life energies released by his followers who died in the battle, then kept himself alive via vampirism for years after. Twenty-five hundred years after the battle, he was prepared to face Q'talu when it returned, only to find out that his magic no longer worked without people's faith to sustain it, and he was forced to watch as King Solomon took his place as Destroyer and drove out Q'talu. He's just been sustaining himself and gathering others like him in the further twenty-five hundred years since then.]]

** Johrsa and his ilk don't drink blood, they just live forever by deliberately killing others in an up close and personal manner (guns don't count - they put too much "distance" between the killer and the victim), or by killing a lot of people at once, which results in the victim's soul and life energies flowing into them; if the killer takes responsibility for what they've done, and ''wants'' to hold onto the power they gained from killing, those energies will heal and sustain them and, over the centuries, cause the fading of their ethnic traits (as Johrsa says, "Once you've killed all men, you become all men..."). ''Anyone'' can become a vampire this way. [[spoiler:Including Teddy London.]] However, those who can't handle the voices in their head that come along with the souls absorbed won't be able to hold onto the energy, and revert to being normal humans.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: They don't drink blood, they just live forever by deliberately killing others in an up close and personal manner, or by killing a lot of people at once. ''Anyone'' can become a vampire this way. [[spoiler:Including Teddy London.]]

* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: ''Some Things Never Die'' implies that fate caused London's family up to die in part to set him up for his role as The Destroyer.
* TheChosenOne: The Destroyer, a role filled by some unsuspecting soul, chosen by fate to stand against Q'talu whenever it tries to enter this dimension. Teddy London is one of at least three known Destroyers in history. [[spoiler:Zeus claims he and the other Confessors chose them.]]
* TheLostLenore: London still mourns his late wife Genevieve "Jenny" Holister, to whom he'd been married for eighteen weeks when she died in a car accident several years before the series began.
* TheUnchosenOne: Jhong underwent much training with the intention of being chosen as The Destroyer, but was ultimately passed up in favor of London. Despite his initial hostility towards London for this, the two wind up allies.

* TroubledBackstoryFlashback: London gets one in ''Some Things Never Die'', revealing how his father and brothers, and later his mother, died when he was younger.