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★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “Luciano Marano extracts the DNA of Dickens’s classic tale and rewires it for his own gonzo spin on the noir detective story. Scrooge is the hard-boiled and cynical shamus, Marley is his dead partner, and the spirits…well…you’ll just have to pull on your woolen nightcap, curl up by the fire, and meet them yourself. Humbug is a hoot, a delectable holiday pudding that, while grisly in all the right places, is also stuffed with soul and heart—as any good Christmas tale ought to be.”—Matthew Mercier, author of Poe & I
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “Marano’s Humbug is Dickens with a .45 and a cigarette burn in his shirt; a fun, bloody, supernatural-noir sure to warm the darkest of hearts.”—Keith Rosson, award-winning author of Coffin Moon and The Devil By Name
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “Humbug is amazing, to begin with. The perfect read—for those horror fans who want to get the Dickens scared out of them during the winter holidays—is gift-wrapped, toe-tagged, and waiting under the tree (or on your TBR). Luciano Marano serves up A Christmas Carol by way of Thomas Harris , a monstrously clever riff on the holiday classic with serial killer tinsel and cosmic horror trappings.”—Patrick Barb, author of Abducted
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “Humbug’s Dickens retelling is a violent, imaginative trek through holiday cheer and curmudgeonly redemption. Marano’s novella presents the Christmas classic as a gritty cat-and-mouse game between hardboiled detective and vicious psychopath—and if you’re a sicko like me, you’ll be smiling the whole way through.”—Carson Winter, author of Portraits of Decay
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “Wrap up well to enjoy the winter chills (and gore!) from Luciano Marano’s Humbug. The story leads with pulpy Tales from the Crypt-style horror, but then—as all A Christmas Carol homages should do—it will leave you feeling just a little warmed.”—Christi Nogle, author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning first novel Beulah
