Lucas Blogs About Books

Huh, what's that on the back cover bottom right? Could it be a picture of the next book in the series? So, what's this book's deal? Well, Amberlough is the first novel by Lara Elena Donnelly. It's a sort of "sex and violence"/"trust no one" spy thriller. It takes place in a fictional country called Gedda that's on the verge of a fascist coup. We start with Cyril DePaul waking up in the apartment of his lover Aristide Makricosta. Cyril works a desk job at the "Foxhole" – Amberlough's branch of the Federal Office of Central Intelligence Services – and he probably shouldn't be sleeping with Ari since Ari's the boss of a local smuggling outfit, that is when he's not emceeing at the Bumble Bee cabaret. Also working at the Bee is Cordelia Lehane, she's a stripper who moonlights as a drug-dealer and is currently two-timing the Bee's owner with his best friend, the Bee's stand-up comic. The plot kicks into ge...

F/NAL G/RLS by R/LEY SAGER? Before we go any further, I assume that you know what the "final girl" trope is in horror film. If not, Google is your friend. So, what's this book's deal? I'm glad you asked, Hypothetical Reader. It's the story of Quincy Carpenter, a baking blogger (yes, this is her real job, and yes, the book does explain how she manages to financially support herself (hint: it doesn't involve the blog)) in Manhattan who, ten years earlier, was the lone survivor of the Pine Cottage Murders (think any slasher movie with an escaped mental patient). Luckily (kinda) for Quincy, she has no memory of what happened between midnight and one am on the night in question. Afterwards, the media dub her a "Final Girl." Sharing this dubious honor are Lisa Milner, who years earlier survived a similar slaughter at her sorority house, and Samantha Boyd, who was working at the Nightlight Inn when it was attacked by the Sack Man. None of...