King of the Lair

KING OF THE LAIRPhiladelphia, early 1980s. Grendel's Lair has a king. His name is Vlad.Onstage, Vlad is magnetic, a self-made rock legend who has turned a nightclub, a band, and a carefully constructed persona into his own private mythology.Then Johnny Dollar walks through the door, guitar in hand and determined to make a name for himself.Johnny has none of Vlad's interest in image or mythology. He is simply himself, and that may be the most dangerous thing about him.As Johnny is drawn deeper into the world of the Lair, relationships begin to shift. Jenny, a woman already woven into the club's inner circle, finds herself increasingly drawn to the outsider. Delilah's obsession with Vlad grows more desperate, while loyalties within Vlad's own band begin to strain. Beneath the music, jealousy, rivalry, longing, and betrayal tighten their hold.Then comes the guitar duel.What begins as a contest between two musicians becomes something far more dangerous, a challenge to the mythology of the Lair itself.Set against the smoke, sweat, neon, and raw energy of Philadelphia's early-1980s rock-club scene, King of the Lair is music-driven literary fiction, a rock & roll Greek tragedy about doomed love, obsessive desire, authenticity, identity, and the legends people create around themselves and each other.One legendary club.One dangerous web of desire.One guitar duel that changes everything.