Escape to Death by Stephen Perkins

There are plenty of wild stories about the seedy underbelly of Hollywood, but in Escape to Death, the incredibly imaginative new novel by Stephen Perkins, Tinseltown is given a dark makeover with supernatural twists at every turn. From film noir detectives to the monstrous lives of the rich and famous, this novel is a non-stop ride that careens from one devilish thrill to the next.

When a young prostitute lands in L.A. with big dreams, her murder cuts that future short, but that doesn’t mean her ghost will let things go. When a seasoned PI with a classic gruff demeanor is enlisted to find the missing girl, it leads him into a macabre world of monsters and impossible villains, many of whom are smack dab in the middle of Hollywood’s elite inner circles.

The most captivating aspect of the book is how Perkins tangles his mystical plot of sorcery and mad scientists with a modern-day commentary on consumption, fake news, political corruption and the deepest shadows of human nature. The wild nature of this fiendish plot holds up a twisted mirror on today’s society, in which backroom deals and impossible political outcomes do sometimes feel like the stuff of dark magic and make believe.

A kind of updated Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons for today’s world, Escape to Death artfully skewers society in a way that’s both entertaining and valuable, for an unbelievably wild work of paranormal fiction.

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