(A few times a week, I take a new book with me to lunch and give it a half an hour or so to grab my attention. Lunch Date is my judgment on that speed-dating experience.)

Who’s your date today? Devil’s Cape, by Rob Rogers

Where’d you go? Quinn’s

What’d you eat? Sausage sandwich with sauerkraut ($9) and fries ($3)

How was the food? I’ve now eaten at Quinn’s three times. The first two times, I left feeling slightly nauseous—I think that Quinn’s meat-in-every-item-on-the-menu strategy may be too much for me. I went this time expecting it to be my last trip, that I’d be finished with Quinn’s for good. But this sausage sandwich, even with the sauerkraut that’s been condensed and riddled with essence of pork, is amazing. This may be the best sausage sandwich I’ve ever eaten. It’s not just the quality of the sandwich—the sausage is made onsite—but the whole goddamned thing was just so well put together that it was brilliant. I never thought I’d say it, but it’s actually worth the nine bucks. I will eat this sandwich again.


What does your date say about itself? It’s a science fiction novel about a city in Louisiana that was founded by pirates. The city’s currently the home to a number of superheroes. It was given to me by a friend who, like me, has a weakness for reading books about superheroes—Soon I Will be Invincible, for example—but is always disappointed by them. He really liked the book, but was ultimately disappointed.

Is there a representative quote? “That was the last time anyone ever saw the Omega, at least anyone who would admit to it. It was as though he had disappeared off the face of the earth, or as though Devil’s Cape had swallowed him whole. The site of his last speech is a regular stop on the city’s popular crime tours.”

Will you two end up in bed together? Yes, but just because it was recommended. The language is a little pedestrian—this is part of the Wizards of the Coast Discoveries Program, which is a contest put on by local publisher Wizards of the Coast in which amateur authors send in their sci-fi novels to WOTC and the best four are published, so that’s probably to be expected—but the darkness and the strong sense of place seem pretty strong. I think it may be a one-night lark, but it should be a fun one.