The Shambling Guide to New York City by Mur Lafferty

immigrating demons out of New York. It’s a symbol of the might of the coterie hunters. A ‘Look what we did to the last demon who came here’ warning.”
    She started writing things down. “All right. That is different. So I outline the book, assign writers, and then set them free?”
    “You will need to go with some of them,” Montel drawled. “You will get a better sense of what the book must contain if you see our field research.”
    “But—” Zoë stopped herself. Phil had said she wasn’t as safe outside, but she knew she had to accept the risks if she was to accept the job. “Right. Field research.”
    “This week we’re doing interviews, and I’ll need you to help interview the writers,” Phil said. “You won’t have to do it alone, but you must remember—”
    Zoë held up her hand, pen wedged between her fingers. “I know, Montel already told me. Don’t judge people by their, uh, race, do you call it? Or something else?”
    Phil raised his eyebrows. “That’s very good, but I wasn’t going to say that. I meant to say that if we interview someone who feeds from humans, you can’t judge them on that basis. And they may not respect you as a boss right away, and you will need to assert yourself. The stronger you appear, the fewer problems you will have, especially outside the office.”
    “OK, no judging, be strong and stuff. Got it,” Zoë said. On her notepad, where Phil and Montel couldn’t see, she wrote, in very small letters, “help.”

EXCERPT FROM
The Shambling Guide to New York City
MANHATTAN:
Lodging
New York is one of the older cities in the United States, and New Amsterdam was built on an island after a battle that still-existing coterie call the Day the Sun Caught Fire. The treaty that sprung from that battle, with the water sprite Angah and the vampire Dark Sun signing, allowed for the humans to settle their city on the island with small concessions to the coterie to continue existing.
    One thing the coterie made sure of was to leave enough existing underground tunnels to accommodate its survivors, as well as creating elaborate tombs to make the already dead feel at home. We recommend Grant’s Tomb, as some of the inner sanctums are quite lovely. But perhaps the best secret lodging is the New York Marble Cemetery in the Bowery, with hidden catacombs offering luxurious safety to visiting coterie.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    T he next week was a blur.
    Zoë fit in better than she’d thought she would. Once her coworkers became used to her, she began to relax a bit.
    She was impressed with her writing team, especially Gwen, who had a clear geographic knowledge of the city. Opal was a native New Yorker whose specialty was her home, the Bronx, while Kevin had been turned while visiting the city and had spent most of his undead existence in Manhattan.
    Zoë got a sense that Opal was annoyed with his preference for Manhattan, but couldn’t figure out why. She got along well with Opal, who was open and friendly, but while Kevin never threatened her, he was short with her.
    “Don’t take it personally,” Opal said one day in the break room. “He was only turned a year ago and has a tendency to resent humans still.”
    “Is that normal?” Zoë asked.
    “Sure, we all did. It doesn’t take long to acclimate to undeath, though. He should be used to it in five years or so.”
    Paul, the zombie on her writing team, was the hardest to get to know. He was a fresher zombie than Montel, apparently, but didn’t have the other man’s flair for conversation. Instead of having been turned by a simple bite, Paul had actually had parts of his brain devoured, which left him a little slow. And that was compared to most zombies.
    Zoë asked Phil, in private, why they had hired him in the first place.
    “Oh, the speech center in his brain was damaged, but the man can write beautifully. He also observes very well, and catches things people usually do not. I’ve put him on writing about ‘Things to Do’