Alter Ego

October 1, 2024

Segura (Secret Identity), a bestselling novelist and comic book author, puts comics at the center of his new thriller. Annie Bustamante is the creator of a hugely lauded superhero comic. She is offered the rights to the superhero Lethal Lynx, a character she has long loved and hoped to write about, but Annie suspects there are strings attached. With a 75K-copy first printing. Prepub Alert.

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October 15, 2024
Alter Ego is an exciting, modern-day, comic-filled mystery by award-winning Segura, a stand-alone sequel to his 2022 title, Secret Identity. Annie Bustamante is our snarky, gogetter main character. Since she was a child, her dream was to draw and write comics, but life had other plans. As we alternate through time with Annie, we see how her struggles and choices lead her to become a successful film director, far away from the comics industry. However, after she is forced to relocate from L.A. back to New York, Annie is offered her dream project: revive The Legendary Lynx, a comic whose origins are uncertain. Unfortunately, Annie and her loved ones become targets as they probe to uncover the truth about the comic. Filled with popular culture references and comic pages throughout, readers can enjoy this even if unfamiliar with the comic industry. The reveal of the villain, however, is lackluster. Overall, the narrative tackles subjects such as intellectual property, sexism, relationships, and being true to yourself and your dreams.

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October 15, 2024
Segura explores the world of comic books and film in his latest thriller. Segura's standalone sequel toSecret Identity (2022) brings back the Lynx, a comic book character co-created by Carmen Valdez in the 1970s. Decades have passed, and the Lynx--originally published by a company called Triumph--has faded into obscurity, though she still has her admirers. Chief among them is Annie Bustamante, a comic book writer who turned to film after having become disenchanted: "Comics had chewed me up and spit me out, and at the moment I wasn't sure I wanted to go for another twelve rounds." But now Annie's movie career has stalled, too, after her studio declined to release her latest, an "artsy superhero thriller" calledMiss Midnight, turning it into a tax write-off instead. She's approached by Bert Carlyle, the son of Triumph's founder, who wants her to work with Arturo Spinoza, a filmmaker, to reintroduce the Lynx across a wide range of media. Annie can't bring herself to say no; the Lynx was a formative character for her as a young woman: "It was one of the first and few comics I could remember not only featuring a woman in the lead, but one that--at least for a brief time--was written by a woman, too. A Cuban woman like me, no less." Things are looking up, until Annie starts to get messages saying "BE CAREFUL," and realizes that her involvement with the Lynx might be putting her in real danger. While the novel doesn't quite live up to the heights ofSecret Identity--the dialogue here can come across as forced--Segura has lost none of his talent at building suspense. Readers will need to come with their disbelief fully suspended, but Segura is charming enough to make it work, and, as in his last book, he sticks the landing beautifully. A ride worth taking, especially for comic book fans.

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