Near Enemy

Spademan—the kill-for-hire antihero from Shovel Ready—returns in another riveting, twisted, genre-busting novel from Adam Sternbergh.

It's a year after Shovel Ready. Persephone is ensconced with her newborn upstate; Simon the Magician is struggling to keep control of Harrow's evangelical empire; and Spademan has accepted a seemingly routine job: to snuff out a no-good bed-hopper named Lesser.

Lesser has been causing headaches all over the limnosphere, racking up enemies left and right. But Lesser comes back from the dream with a wild claim: that the terrorists have found a way to infiltrate the limnosphere, to hijack the luxury virtual escape from the inside. And they're doing it from somewhere in New York.

Spademan is not used to having enemies—his foes usually end up dead pretty quickly—but he tries to stay vigilant about the dangers that lurk right under our noses. He's about to find out just how close these new enemies are—and how dangerous they can be.