Smoke and Dagger

by Douglas Wynne

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Pub Date Aug 20 2019 | Archive Date Nov 30 2019

Horror | Sci Fi & Fantasy

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Description

Catherine Littlefield was raised in a seaside New England town haunted by whispers of arcane lore that remained tantalizingly out of reach to a daughter of well-to-do Baptists. But when her studies at Barnard College in New York lead to an encounter with a secret society, she is offered access to the knowledge she has always sought...if she can pass a test. Dispatched to California to infiltrate the occult world of a rival magician—a pioneering rocket scientist with ties to the apocalyptic Starry Wisdom Church—Catherine soon discovers that she’s not the only one spying on Jack Parsons. A fledgling government agency devoted to the investigation of weird science in the aftermath of World War II has assigned a pair of hard-nosed agents to gather information on her target, whose experiments with sex magic and eldritch artifacts are approaching a cosmic crescendo. Drawn into the volatile chemistry of Jack’s inner circle and tempted with knowledge and power, Catherine must determine what’s at stake for a world threatened by dark forces and decide where her true loyalties lie. Featuring 25 pages of black-and-white illustrations by Mat Fitzsimmons

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A Note From the Publisher

Douglas Wynne wrote his first dark fantasy novel at the age of fifteen but took a creative detour soon after to spend the next decade writing songs and singing in rock bands. After earning his BA in Music Production and Engineering at Berklee College of Music and working a short stint as a recording engineer in Woodstock, NY, he came full circle back to fiction writing and is recently the author of five novels: The Devil of Echo Lake, Steel Breeze, and the SPECTRA Files trilogy (Red Equinox, Black January, and Cthulhu Blues). His short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies, and his writing workshops have been featured at genre conventions and other venues throughout New England. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife and son and a houseful of animals.

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Advance Praise

"Douglas Wynne's Smoke& Dagger has it all: Warring cultists, espionage, government agents, sex magic, dangerous grimoires, and the looming threat of an incursion into our world by wrathful Old Gods. It's a crackling noir thriller with a dark, diabolic edge." –Matthew M. Bartlett, author of Gateways to Abomination "In Smoke & Dagger, Douglas Wynne has created a lively, slithering, twisting tale that combines the atomic age's darkest science with the mad fictions of Lovecraft, revealing an entire universe of horror and magic based on the very real lives and histories of some of the last century's most colorful characters and mysterious secret societies. Wynne weaves a spell that will take you back in time, slip you into alternate universes, and drench you in a hot, smoky world filled with tantric sex, mad scientists, mysterious cults, secret government agencies and characters that leap off the page to pull you in. Don't miss this ride." –Philip Fracassi, author of Behold the Void "Wynne skillfully blends ancient myth, modern events, and Lovecraftian ideas into a fast-paced narrative about the places where history official and history secret collide." –John Langan, author of Sefira and Other Betrayals

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Marketing Plan

Launched at NecronomiCon Providence with author reading and signing; author appearances and readings in Massachusetts, including the Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival; outreach to horror and dark fantasy reviewers/bloggers; Library Thing ARC giveaways; author podcast appearances.

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