Secret Santa

October 12, 2020
The latest black comedy from satirist Shaffer (Hope Never Dies) is a spirited holiday horror novel shot through with ’80s nostalgia. In 1986, horror fiction editor Lussi Meyer interviews for a position at the illustrious publishing house Blackwood-Patterson, a firm so highbrow that it’s about to shut down due to a lack of sales. Though the snobbish Mr. Blackwood scoffs at genre fiction, he hires Lussi and tasks her with finding a bestselling horror novel that will save Blackwood-Patterson from dissolution. As Lussi starts work, she becomes the victim of a series of office pranks, and at the company’s Christmas party she receives a mysterious Secret Santa present: a German doll that looks like the Devil. Soon thereafter, something begins picking off Lussi’s new coworkers, which Lussi suspects is connected to the doll. As the murders grow increasingly violent, Lussi tries to get rid of the doll once and for all—but it may take her and the company down with it. Writing with a biting, dry wit, Shaffer blends old school, B-movie gore and sharp send-ups of office politics and the publishing industry. Fans of classic slasher novels will revel in this blood-soaked romp.

October 15, 2020
It is December 1, 1986 and Lussi Meyer, a 28-year-old book editor is job hunting, having been let go due to a publishing house takeover. She is witty, literate, whip smart, and knows a hot horror genre manuscript when she sees one. After initially being rejected by Blackwood-Patterson, a well-known literary fiction publisher, an unexpected death allows Lussi to talk her way into a senior editor position. What she does not know is that the Blackwood Building houses an evil spirit, one she unknowingly acquires during the office Christmas party. Shaffer takes a break from his cheeky, escapist Obama Biden mysteries (Hope Rides Again, 2019) to pen a devilishly farcical ode to horror novels and publishing in general. There is a plethora of '80s literary and pop culture references and enough horror tropes, including a dangerously massive slush pile of unread manuscripts, to ensure readers know that the terror never truly ends. Anyone who ventures into this snarky, dark novel will never look at a holiday gift exchange in the same way again.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)