Read by Andi Arndt

The Office meets Stephen King, dressed up in holiday tinsel, in this fun, festive, and frightening horror-comedy set during the horror publishing boom of the '80s, by New York Times bestselling satirist Andrew Shaffer. Out of work for months, Lussi Meyer is desperate to work anywhere in publishing. Prestigious Blackwood-Patterson isn't the perfect fit, but a bizarre set of circumstances leads to her hire and a firm mandate: Lussi must find the next horror superstar to compete with Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Peter Straub. It's the '80s, after all, and horror is the hottest genre. But as soon as she arrives, Lussi finds herself the target of her coworkers' mean-spirited pranks. The hazing reaches its peak during the company's annual Secret Santa gift exchange, when Lussi receives a demonic-looking object that she recognizes but doesn't understand. Suddenly, her coworkers begin falling victim to a series of horrific accidents akin to a George Romero movie, and Lussi suspects that her gift is involved. With the help of her former author, the flamboyant Fabien Nightingale, Lussi must track down her anonymous Secret Santa and figure out the true meaning of the cursed object in her possession before it destroys the company-and her soul. "A touch of the supernatural, malefic colleagues, and plenty of eccentricity." "Shaffer delivers chills and laughs-he is fundamentally a comedic writer-in a story that leads into Halloween and Christmas like a good Tim Burton film." "A superbly crafted, impressively original, and inherently riveting read from cover to cover." "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." "Anyone who ventures into this snarky, dark novel will never look at a holiday gift exchange in the same way again."

Mode of access: World Wide Web