The Puppet Master — John Dalmas

THE PRIVATE EYE HAD A MIND, OF HIS OWN!

In an alternate time line, a breakthrough in basic physics has catapulted technology centuries ahead in only a few years. Everyday life has become very different, but crime always goes on, and criminals have found new ways to steal and murder and cover their tracks. It hasn't made life any easier for private eye Martti Seppanen, in a Los Angeles that Philip Marlowe would barely recognize.

Murder is still murder, but the weapon may be a bioengineered disease, the murderer may be someone who can control other people mentally, and the victim may be someone whose legal status as a human is in limbo, and whose existence is a government secret. But when Seppanen is on the case, it gets solved, with legwork, with muscle': and often with the help of some unusual friends--one of them much more than a friend--with their own very unusual mental powers.