The Upper Tentacle - (Singularity) by Amanda Helms (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The admin for a corporate retreat and a body splitting alien team up to solve the murder of the company's president at a closed ski resort before their alien overlords inflict dire consequences for humanity's collective insubordination, in this horror comedy murder mystery for the ages.

Nia would probably rather be anywhere than a closed ski resort, supporting Hugh Callahan, the president of Crestone Learning, at a company retreat. As the only admin, she is responsible for pretty much everything, from making sure that meals are on time, resources prepared for speeches and ALSO APPARENTLY of solving the murder of the aforementioned and newly deceased Hugh Callahan, who was found murdered in a resort hot tub.

Meanwhile, Khearozoth, a 4th level subordinate class of shelgol'gah, only had one job at the retreat: to make sure that Hugh was appropriately verbose in honoring their master, Ak-Gorug. Because in addition to leading Crestone Learning, Hugh was also a shelgol'gah vassal.

When Ak-Gorug learns about Hugh's death, they task Khearozoth with finding the killer. Khearozoth subsequently deputizes Nia, by making it clear that a failure to find Hugh's killer will have dire consequences for all of them. There is a killer on the loose--and Ak-Gorug does not brook disappointments...​

​The Upper Tentacle is a horror murder mystery buddy comedy, all rolled up into one.

About the Author

Amanda Helms is a biracial writer and editor who formerly worked in educational publishing, starting out as an editorial assistant and eventually climbing the corporate ladder to content editor. Now, she spends her time envisioning alternate worlds and creating characters to populate them, while keeping her editorial skills honed at Diabolical Plots magazine. Her short fiction has appeared in FIYAH, Uncanny, and Lightspeed, among other fine venues. The Upper Tentacle is her debut book.