cover image Smoke and Dagger: A Spectra Files Prequel

Smoke and Dagger: A Spectra Files Prequel

Douglas Wynne. Prometheus, $11.99 trade paper (170p) ISBN 978-1-07-726683-4

The standalone prequel to Wynne’s Lovecraftian Spectra Files trilogy is a tale of hair-raising, supernaturally tinged suspense. College student Catherine Littlefield has always been sensitive to eldritch energies, fueling a lifelong academic love for the occult. Catherine’s knowledge is put to the test when Walter Hildebrand, a curator for the Museum of Natural History in New York, seeks her out and offers her a spot in a secret society of people with her same sensitivities. The society tasks Catherine with infiltrating the inner circle of rocket scientist and occult master Jack Parsons, who they have reason to believe is conducting potentially world-ending experiments in summoning ancient gods. Parsons is taken by Catherine, but his partner, Iraqi refugee Kamen Abdelmalek, is suspicious—as is the pair of government agents conducting their own investigation of Parsons. As the eager but inexperienced Catherine plunges into a world of “sex, drugs, and black magic,” the threat of an apocalypse looms and Wynne’s precise, high-tension story builds to an explosive finale. Fans of occult fantasy will be happy to sink their teeth into this shadowy world. (Self-published.)