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OUT NOW: The Second Shooter by Nick Mamatas!

We’re thrilled to be wishing The Second Shooter by Nick Mamatas a very happy book birthday!

This brilliantly weird, smart, sci-fi thriller is the latest novel from hugely acclaimed author Nick Mamatas, and is perfect for fans of Philip K. Dick’s The Adjustment Bureau and Stephen King’s 11.22.63.

“There was video of the second shooter. There was video.”

In the first reports of every mass shooting, there’s always mention of a second shooter—two sets of gunshots, a figure seen fleeing the scene—and they always seem to evaporate as events are pieced together.

Commissioned by a fringe publisher to investigate the phenomenon, journalist Mike Karras finds himself tailed by drones, attacked by a talk radio host, badgered by his all-knowing (and maybe all-powerful) editor, and teaming up with an immigrant family of conspiracy buffs.

Together, they uncover something larger and stranger than anyone could imagine—a technomystical plot to ‘murder America.’

Time for Karras to meet his deadline.

“A smart, scary, mind-boggling ride.” — Publishers Weekly

“The Second Shooter is a sublime, clever and humorous dive into the murky waters of human perception and existence in a USA where nothing is real anymore.” — Starburst

“Mamatas offers plenty of scathing commentary on gun violence and misuse of social media in a novel that is both smart and topical” — Financial Times

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Solaris acquires The Second Shooter, a speculative thriller by Nick Mamatas

Solaris are delighted to announce the acquisition of a political–espionage thriller The Second Shooter by Nick Mamatas, which will be released in autumn 2021.

Editor David Thomas Moore acquired World English rights in Mamatas’ new novel from Michael Curry at Donald Maass Literary Agency.

 Synopsis:

With an almost preternatural knack for knowing what people are going to say, Mike Karras has heard a lot of strange things. But they’re about to get stranger. And a lot more dangerous.

As far back as the assassination of JFK and as current as more recent tragedies, eyewitness accounts of a second shooter have infiltrated popular consciousness, appearing in early media reports and on social networks. But there’s rarely any proof. Commissioned by a small conspiracy-minded publisher to research this phenomenon, Mike’s found enough true believers to draw unwanted attention to himself…

Author Nick Mamatas on the acquisition:

“I’m extremely excited to be able to bring The Second Shooter—a novel that has been gestating for years—to the public before the world ends in a hail of bullets, viruses, 54-degree spring days, fascist governments, tsunamis, and online grudges. Did you know that every revolution of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries started with a very committed book club? Well, it’s true.”

Editor David Thomas Moore:

The Second Shooter is a wonderfully batty story, a political/espionage thriller seen through a wholly cracked lens, like Lee Child or Robert Ludlum as written by Jeff Vandemeer. I’ve been a fan of Nick’s for years and I’m over the moon to be giving this novel a home.”

About the author:

Nick Mamatas is the author of several novels, including Move Under GroundI Am Providence and Sabbath. His short fiction has appeared in Best American Mystery Stories, Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, Tor.com, and dozens of other venues. Much of the last decade’s short fiction was recently collected in The People’s Republic of Everything

Nick is also an editor and anthologist: he co-edited the Bram Stoker Award-winning Haunted Legends with Ellen Datlow, the Locus Award nominees The Future is Japanese and Hanzai Japan with Masumi Washington, and the hybrid fiction/cocktail title Mixed Up with Molly Tanzer. His short fiction, non-fiction, novels, and editorial work have variously been nominated for the Hugo, Shirley Jackson, Stoker, and World Fantasy Awards.

For review copies, information, or interviews for The Second Shooter please contact Hanna Waigh, Fiction – PR & Marketing Manager: hanna.waigh@rebellion.co.uk.