That could have gone better, McLachlan thought. With the Cult of the Eighth House once again in possession of the Cups, all looks lost for our caustic hero. And that's not all McLachlan has on his mind. Matteo's angry about the showdown with the Cult henchmen, vampires are prowling, he has a first date later in the day...and there's a dead body behind his favorite coffee shop. Meanwhile, Rebecca is unsure whether agreeing to said date was such a good idea. She was just getting to a good place in her life - a new role as college teaching assistant, closure on a couple of major chapters, finally regaining her voice...and somehow there's a dead body behind her favorite coffee shop. Haunted by the failures of their previous relationships, self-doubt gnaws at them. How can he involve someone he cares about in his life when there's a demonic cult, surly vampires, charming werewolves, a dead body, and he pretty much offends anyone and everyone he comes into contact with? And how is she blindly going on a date with a guy she met over the phone who doesn't sleep, keeps odd hours, and knows way too much about soap opera plotlines? "How to Be Dead", the second book in The Cups Triptych, picks up shortly after the first book - "Building a Mystery" (out now, pretty good, tell your friends) - ended. "How to Be Dead" follows both McLachlan and Rebecca as they (finally) come together while charting his estrangement from Dylan some 12 years ago.