Every city has stories buried beneath its streets. In Benjamin Sarno’s One Demon, Two Ghosts, Three Loads of Cash: Tales From Sunnyside, those buried stories have a terrifying presence, and the officers answering Sunnyside’s calls are about to encounter it firsthand.
Set in a gritty coastal California city, this supernatural crime novel brings police work into contact with an ancient force. Through three linked tales drawn from real patrol work, Benjamin introduces a place where violence, hidden money, and disturbed burial ground create a dangerous atmosphere. Sunnyside’s past remains active, reaching into the lives of people who patrol its streets.
A Routine Call With Terrifying Consequences
Sunnyside was built on desecrated burial ground, and something old has remained beneath the city. That foundation gives the setting an immediate sense of unease. Each call carries the possibility of bringing officers closer to whatever the city has buried.
Sergeant Daemon Blake works Sunnyside’s worst beats. His experience places him in the middle of its everyday dangers, where answering a routine call can quickly become a fight for survival. Then one encounter takes an extraordinary turn.
A firefight erupts with a man who refuses to stay down. The threat becomes even more disturbing when the entity inside that body leaps into Blake in a blink. Suddenly, the sergeant’s own mind becomes the site of a struggle he has to endure while the city’s violence continues around him.
It’s a premise that gives the story a deeply personal source of tension. Blake faces an invading presence within himself, making his ability to act, think, and maintain control central to the suspense. Readers have a reason to follow every shift in his situation, because the danger has crossed directly into his consciousness.
The linked structure also introduces a rookie and a pair of crime-suppression officers. Their involvement opens several routes into Sunnyside’s troubled landscape, allowing the city’s buried history to emerge through different encounters.
Following the Bodies and the Money
While Blake fights inside his own head, his Crime Reduction Team continues working the streets. Their investigation brings together a grim collection of discoveries: executed ex-felons, a cannabis warehouse filled with corpses, and a dead federal agent.
Each detail adds pressure. The scale of the violence suggests an investigation with far-reaching consequences, while the presence of a federal agent raises further questions about the people and interests connected to the case.
Then there are the three loads of cash.
The money trail stretches from a drug warehouse in Sunnyside to a no-bid contract in Afghanistan. That connection expands the story’s scope, giving readers a thread that reaches across borders while remaining rooted in the city’s immediate dangers. Following the cash becomes part of understanding how these events fit together.
Benjamin’s premise gives crime-thriller readers several points of entry. There’s the urgency of street-level police work, the uncertainty surrounding multiple deaths, and the question of where the money leads. The supernatural element runs through this already volatile environment, adding another layer of danger to the officers’ work.
Drawing the linked tales from real patrol work gives the book a practical starting point for its unsettling events. Calls, assignments, and investigations provide familiar structures through which the extraordinary can emerge. For readers who enjoy police stories with an eerie atmosphere, that combination offers an intriguing setup.
Sunnyside itself helps hold these threads together. Its desecrated ground, violent streets, and concealed connections make the location central to the story’s identity. The city carries a history that its officers are gradually forced to confront.
About the Author
Benjamin is the author of One Demon, Two Ghosts, Three Loads of Cash: Tales From Sunnyside, a supernatural crime novel presented through three linked tales. The book draws from real patrol work and follows officers encountering the consequences of what lies beneath Sunnyside, California.
His story brings a police sergeant, a rookie, and crime-suppression officers into a shared setting shaped by criminal activity and an ancient presence. The novel is available in Kindle and paperback editions on Amazon.
A City That Keeps Its Secrets Close
With an invaded mind, a deadly investigation, and money moving toward distant interests, One Demon, Two Ghosts, Three Loads of Cash: Tales From Sunnyside offers plenty for curious readers to explore. Benjamin’s premise invites them into a coastal city where answering the next call could bring its buried secrets closer to the surface.