Lovecraft meets "Blade Runner" in a stand-alone supernatural horror novel. Gene Wolfe can write in whatever genre he wants - and always with superb style and profound depth. Now following his World Fantasy Award winner, "Soldier of Sidon", and his stunning "Pirate Freedom", Wolfe turns to the tradition of H. P. Lovecraft and the weird science tale of supernatural horror.
Set a hundred years in the future, "An Evil Guest" is the story of an actress who becomes the lover of both a mysterious private detective and an even more mysterious and powerful rich man, a man who has been to the human colony on an alien planet and learned strange things there. Her loyalties are divided - perhaps she loves them both. The detective helps her to release her inner beauty and become a star overnight. The rich man is the angel of a play she stars in. But something is very wrong. Money can be an evil guest, but there are other evils. As Lovecraft said, 'That is not dead which can eternal lie'.
Reviews
“It’s a pulp thriller—and that’s a compliment, because Wolfe knows from pulp thrillers and because here he’s creating a strange sort of genre meltdown, a 21st century pulp adventure thriller with SF and horror elements that nobody else could possibly have written.”
--Neil Gaiman on An Evil Guest
"Wolfe's latest novel is a three-ring cavalcade about a rising starlet pining for adventure and lucre, an enigmatic professor named Gideon Chase who may or may not be as judgmental as his biblical namesake, and a chilly billionaire hiding behind a few names…the enticing mix of mystery, wordplay and ethical inquiry proves that [Wolfe] still has it." The Washington Post
