Agent: Caitlin McDonald, Sterling Lord Literistic. With luck, Vic will be back for an encore. This intoxicating thriller keeps the reader guessing. About the book: Author of the Nebula- and Locus-nominated AMBERLOUGH series Lara Elena Donnelly’s new novel BASE NOTES, in which twenty-something perfumier Vic Fowler has built a deadly side-hustle to cope with the crushing demands of late capitalism but when a wealthy client threatens to bring it all down. Lara has taught in the MFA program at Sarah Lawrence College, as well as the Catapult Workshop in New York. Whom he picks and how he convinces them to do his bidding develops into a fascinating psychological drama. 3.5 stars How fragrances can elicit memories is a topic in this new thriller. Lara Elena Donnelly is the author of the Nebula, Lambda and Locus-nominated trilogy The Amberlough Dossier, as well as short fiction and poetry appearing in venues including Strange Horizons, Escape Pod, Nightmare and Uncanny. He decides to find three other people to carry out the murders. When an investigator comes to interview Vic about Caroline’s disappearance, Vic knows he can no longer do Eisner’s job himself without raising suspicion.

Vic’s previous victim was Caroline Yates, whose death was ordered by her husband, a partner of Eisner and now one of Eisner’s intended targets. A further condition is that before Vic disposes of the victims’ bodies, he must produce a fragrance that evokes a particular memory in Eisner, a task Vic has no idea if he can accomplish. To save his financially strapped perfume business, Vic accepts a contract from Joseph Eisner to kill the three partners in Eisner’s asset management company. New York City perfumer Vic Fowler, the narrator of this clever standalone from Donnelly (the Amberlough Dossier series), has a somewhat less respectable sideline-murder for hire.

Base notes by lara elena donnelly