Ah, the 1980s. The decade that saw the release of Silent Night, Deadly Night, a Christmas horror film that spawned parental outrage for its depiction of a killer dressed as Santa Claus. New York Times best-seller Andrew Shaffer is taking us back to the ’80s for his upcoming novel Secret Santa, though it’s not a killer in a Santa suit that’s bringing the terror this time.
Billed as a “horror for the holidays novel,” Secret Santa is said to mix Office Space and The Shining, “dressed up with holiday tinsel and set during the horror publishing boom of the ’80s.”
In Secret Santa…
After half a decade editing some of the biggest names in horror, Lussi Meyer joins prestigious Blackwood-Patterson to kickstart its new horror imprint. Her co-workers seem less than thrilled. Ever since the illustrious Xavier Blackwood died and his party-boy son took over, things have been changing around the office.
When Lussi receives a creepy gnome doll as part of the company’s annual holiday gift exchange, it verifies what she’s long suspected: her colleagues think she’s a joke. No one takes her seriously, even if she’s the one whose books are keeping the company afloat.
What happens after the doll’s arrival is no joke. With no explana- tion, Lussi’s co-workers begin to drop like flies. A heart attack here; a food poisoning there. One of her authors and closest friends, the fabulous but underrated Fabien Nightingale, sees the tell-tale signs of supernatural forces at play, stemming from the gnome sitting quietly on Lussi’s shelf. The only question is. . . does Lussi want to stop it from working its magic?
Quirk Books will release the 240-page novel on November 10th. Cover art not yet available.