The book takes place during the horror publishing boom of the 1980s. I spent a lot of time going back and forth with my editor to make sure everything balanced out just so. Getting the combination right was the most difficult part about writing Secret Santa. Lean too much into the comedy, and the horror isn’t scary make things too horrifying, and the jokes fall flat. Horror comedy is a constant tightrope act. Mystery and humour work together in much the same way. Horror ratchets up the tension humour relieves it. Stand-up comedians have the formula distilled to its most basic components, the setup and the punch line. Horror and humour are two sides of the same coin. You’re known as a “pro of parodies” (Associated Press) and have been celebrated for your humour writing. Of course, I had no idea that when I started Secret Santa that 2020 would turn out to be the year the twenty-four-hour news cycle swallowed us all.

Following politics too closely can be anxiety-inducing! Writing a horror novel felt like a nice break from all of that, a chance to ignore the news for a while.

What led you to write a horror novel?Īfter finishing the second Obama Biden Mystery, I joked that I was ready to write something less horrifying than politics. Secret Santa is your debut in the horror genre. You’ve written New York Times best-selling satires and mysteries, as well as nonfiction. We spoke to Andrew about setting his novel in the Eighties and how Gremlins, Ghoulies and Critters inspired Secret Santa. The Officemeets Stephen King, dressed up in holiday tinsel, in Secret Santa – a fun, festive, and frightening horror-comedy set during the horror publishing boom of the Eighties, by New York Times best-selling satirist Andrew Shaffer.

Predators by Eric Sauter