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Pantheon · press kit

Everything here is free to quote, copy and republish. Nothing on this page spoils the book beyond its first act. If you need something that is not here, ask.

lacunae.writes@gmail.com

At a glance

Title
Pantheon
Author
Lacunae
Series
Pantheon, book one of three. It stands alone.
Genre
Romantic conspiracy thriller. Romantic suspense on a retailer shelf.
Published
1 November 2026, self-published
Format
Kindle ebook, included with Kindle Unlimited from release day, and paperback, both on 1 November 2026. The hardcover follows later. Cover illustration by Jryona.
Length
152,889 words · 63 chapters · about 538 pages
Price
USD 4.99
ASIN
B0HG2T4G3P
Audience
Adult. Explicit sexual content and graphic violence.
Comparable to
Red Sparrow, First Lie Wins, The Night Manager
Review copies
EPUB or PDF, whichever you prefer. Ask and it is sent the same day, or claim one on Booksprout until 23 October.

Read it before you commit

The first seven chapters are on this site, free, with no signup and nothing to claim. It is roughly an hour of reading, and it is the honest way to decide whether the book is for you or for your readers.

Read chapters 1 to 7

Description, short

Vivienne Ho does not exist. The woman running Praya Capital used to kill for a living, and she has spent six years making sure nobody looks at her twice. Then Damien Tang loses a deal to her on a Thursday, wants her by the weekend, and has her investigated. The people hunting her only need to find her. He needs to see her, and being seen is the one thing she cannot survive.

Description, full

Vivienne Ho does not exist.

For five years the most composed woman in any Hong Kong boardroom has been a face Circe puts on by hand before seven each morning, and a life built so completely it became real to the woman wearing it.

Circe used to kill for a living, for a private house in Geneva, and she walked away from it six years ago. This is the season the house puts half a billion dollars on her head and every contractor in her old trade starts looking.

Damien Tang loses a container terminal to her on a Thursday and wants her by the weekend. His family opens a file on the woman he cannot stop thinking about, and he lets it run. He has money, no training, and no idea what he is buying.

The hunters only need to find her. Damien needs to see her, properly, at close range, and being seen is the one thing her craft cannot survive.

He is not going to stop.

A romantic conspiracy thriller for readers of Red Sparrow, First Lie Wins and The Night Manager. Romance and conspiracy carry equal weight, and both are explicit on the page. Book one of a trilogy; it stands alone.

Contains explicit sexual content and graphic violence. Intended for adult readers.

Content warnings

Stated plainly and without euphemism, because a warning a reader has to decode has failed at its only job.

  • Explicit sex on the page.
  • The protagonist shoots and kills people on the page, including in a crowded market. She worked as a contract killer, and the book never lets her off one particular killing.
  • A named character dies by suicide, by hanging.
  • A character is shut into a low-oxygen room and suffocates.
  • Exhumation, with the protagonist handling human remains herself.
  • Lasting injury. Grief and estrangement.
  • The man courting the protagonist has her identity investigated without her consent. The book treats it as the harm it is. He is charged for it, and it is never eroticised.
  • No sexual violence. No on-page harm to children. No sexualised violence.

Cover

The cover of Pantheon: a painting of a dark-haired woman in a dark slip, looking away, holding up a pale mask of her own face by its crown. LACUNAE, the title PANTHEON and BOOK ONE sit across the top, and the line “He wants to know her. She cannot survive being known.” runs along the foot.

Free to use in any review, feature or post about the book. Please credit it as Cover illustration by Jryona (@jryona_arts).

Served here at 1023 px, which is more than most posts need. A print-resolution file is available on request.

Download the cover

Social images

Ready to post, in the two shapes a feature usually needs. Free to use, the same as the cover.

Both carry the cover, so credit them the same way. If you would like a different size or shape, ask and I will cut it.

About the author

Lacunae writes love stories about people who are very good at dangerous work. She likes them best at the point where being good at it stops being enough.

She writes in two shapes. Pantheon is a romantic conspiracy thriller, the first of three, about a woman who has spent five years making sure nobody can see her properly and the man who will not stop looking. Perpetūra is five interconnected stories across five centuries, published as two books and also readable free as an interactive novel.

Both are self-published, and both are written in the evenings around a full-time job.

Everything, including a journal about how the books actually get made, is at lacunaedesigns.com.