Upper Tentacle - Amanda Helms

The admin for a corporate retreat and a body splitting alien team up to solve the murder of the company's president at a closed ski resort before their alien overlords inflict dire consequences for humanity's collective insubordination, in this horror comedy murder mystery for the ages.

Nia would probably rather be anywhere than a closed ski resort, supporting Hugh Callahan, the president of Crestone Learning, at a company retreat. As the only admin, she is responsible for pretty much everything, from making sure that meals are on time, resources prepared for speeches and ALSO APPARENTLY of solving the murder of the aforementioned and newly deceased Hugh Callahan, who was found murdered in a resort hot tub. 

Meanwhile, Khearozoth, a 4th level subordinate class of shelgol'gah, only had one job at the retreat: to make sure that Hugh was appropriately verbose in honoring their master, Ak-Gorug. Because in addition to leading Crestone Learning, Hugh was also a shelgol'gah vassal. 

When Ak-Gorug learns about Hugh’s death, they task Khearozoth with finding the killer. Khearozoth subsequently deputizes Nia, by making it clear that a failure to find Hugh’s killer will have dire consequences for all of them. There is a killer on the loose—and Ak-Gorug does not brook disappointments...​

​The Upper Tentacle is a horror murder mystery buddy comedy, all rolled up into one.