The press cycle is starting for my new novel, The Mona Lisa Sacrifice. Quill and Quire says the book “sweeps you up with its gallows humour, whether you’re revelling in the pleasures of two-fisted, angel-punching action or the cleverly rendered language.” The same day, lit blogger extraordinaire Chad Pelley posted an interview with me about why I used a pen name, lit fiction vs. genre fiction and what’s next for Cross. More to come, hopefully!

Courtesy of ChiZine editor Sandra Kasturi. Coming to a bookstore near you in mid-June, along with David Nickle‘s The ‘Geisters. That should cover your summer reading.

My new novel, The Mona Lisa Sacrifice, isn’t out until June, but it does have a lovely review already, courtesy of Publishers Weekly.

Vancouver author Roman (a pen name for Peter Darbyshire, The Warhol Gang) pushes urban fantasy noir to its logical extreme by casting the resurrected body of Christ—now called Cross—as an angel-slaying, wise-cracking antihero in search of the real Mona Lisa who inspired da Vinci’s painting.

That’s me — the logical extreme!

My new novel, The Mona Lisa Sacrifice (written under the alias Peter Roman), is now available for pre-order. You can order it at all the usual places, or you can order it directly from the publisher, ChiZine. If you order the print version from CZ, you get a 30% discount and the ebook thrown in for free. You have to love a progressive publisher.

Here’s the catalog copy if you’re not sure what this Peter Roman business is all about:

For thousands of years, Cross has wandered the earth, a mortal soul trapped in the undying body left behind by Christ. He’s been a thief, a con man, a soldier and a drunkard. He’s fought as a slave in the Colosseum and as a knight at King Arthur’s side. But now he must play the part of reluctant hero, as an angel comes to him for help finding the Mona Lisa—the real Mona Lisa that inspired the painting. Cross’s quest takes him into a secret world within our own, populated by characters just as strange and wondrous as he is: gorgons and dead gods hidden away in museums; faeries that live in countryside pubs, trapping and enslaving unwary travellers; and super-rich collectors who trade magical artifacts among themselves. He’s haunted by memories of Penelope, the only woman he truly loved, and he wants to avenge her death at the hands of his ancient enemy, Judas, a forgotten god from an ancient time. The angel promises to deliver Judas to Cross, but nothing is ever what it seems when Judas is involved, and when a group of renegade angels looking for a new holy war show up, things truly go to hell.