Wash It All Away is the working title for a classic hard-boiled detective story with a historical fantasy backdrop.

Like most hard-boiled detective stories, this one is about a man getting dragged ever deeper into the mud of society just trying to do his job. When P.I. James Hartwell receives a mysterious letter about a job, he follows through. He’s got bills to pay after all. Unfortunately he has no idea what he’s gotten himself into.

What makes this story unique is it’s setting. It’s 1938, but not the way we remember it. At the turn of the century a bazaar phenomena changed the course of history. For reasons unknown, the boundaries between our world and another weakened. All manner of strange peoples and creatures wound up stranded here. These beings resembled the fables and fairy tales we all grew up with. Elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, and all other manner of creature suddenly walked side by side with us. Through the last 38 years the world has had a turbulent relationship with these ’others.’ WW1 saw powerful beings ally with both sides, and while many where praised as heroes, the blame for the war eventually fell on these ’others.’ Not long after, the great depression struck the United States, and once again the ’others’ became a convenient scape-goat. When FDR began his presidency, prejudice against the ’others’ was at an all-time high. In 1933 as part of Roosevelt’s New Deal the ’others’ where to be deported to special reservations for their own protection, and to restore confidence to a broken country. It’s been 5 years, and life for most American’s has returned to normal. The rest live in the shadow of oppression, corruption, magic, and danger.