Cul-de-Sac Carnage

Discount Dan's Backroom Bargains, Book 2

By: James Hunter

Narrated by: Steve Campbell

Welcome back, Bargain Hunters! Stock up. Lock down. And brace yourself for the sale of a lifetime.

With the shadow of the Flayed Monarch looming ever closer, Dan must prepare the store and himself for the battle to come. To stand a chance, he’ll need to expand his operations, broker a precarious trade deal with the Delvers of Howlers Hold, and transform his stash of relics into an arsenal of magical war crimes.

But first, he’ll need to carve a bloody path through the heart of the 24th floor—Eternal Suburbia. A hellish, never-ending labyrinth of tidy lawns, cookie-cutter houses, and homicidal homeowners. Few survive the lawnmower men, the feral Karens, the ever-ravenous Kannibal Kids, or the tyrannical HOA, which reigns supreme with an iron fist of petty rules and bloodstained bylaws.

With a gaggle of increasingly untrustworthy allies, and dangers lurking behind every perfectly trimmed hedge, Dan will need to do the impossible if he wants to beat the system and live to fight another day.

©2025 James A. Hunter (P)2025 Audible, Inc.

A worthy Discount version of Dungeon Crawler Carl

I see many series compared to DCC, but this is the first series I've seen worthy of that. Here are the rules, as I see them.
1. Every set-up has to have a payoff.
2. Every fight has to be interesting and add to the story.
3. Every character and monster needs to be interesting.
4. Every item needs to be intriguing.
5. The banality of our world needs to be twisted in a strange way.
As a writer myself, let me say that these are hard to pull off, especially the first item. In the first book, Dan establishes a discount store where other delvers can get basic items like backpacks and toothbrushes. He's desperate to expand his inventory. And there's a lot of twisted stuff he has to go through to get this lousy store that you can find hundreds of in any town. One set-up detail: He's hung a lot of drywall. Pay-off detail: He has his toolbelt, and can use an angle square in an unexpected way.
As the second book opens, he needs to capture a kiosk from a Mall full of monsters. If you've ever wanted a bog-standard kiosk to be both funny and terrifying, here you go. This is a set-up to a far more terrifying place he needs to go: the suburbs. Lots of cookie-cutter homes all alike with green lawns.
But before he can go to the suburbs, he needs to visit Hotel Hell and get a shower and a washing machine. And he needs to build up more alliances.
The different levels of The Backrooms all have a different feel. Almost every paragraph has skewed humor of some sort.

Great series so far. Highly recommended.

Fantastic plot lines and character development

While I enjoyed the first book of the series, the second book outshines it in every way. The story really moves forward in interesting plot lines and the author did a great job of developing the characters in ways that really draws you in. Definitely worth the read.

This series is too good

By too good I mean I binge through each book in two or three days and then.. I'm left trying to find anything to fill the void. Can't wait to hear more from Hunter, whether that's in the backrooms or about a certain vigil incarnate.

Looking forward to the next

The voice actor is great. The story has DCC vibes but separates itself properly. Problems are solved in interesting and unpredictable ways. I think any fan of the genre would enjoy this.

Absolutely blown away!

This storyline gives me the feel of dungeon crawler Carl in a way. That being said, it is its own story with different mechanics that makes it on par with the above mentioned series and has the potential to be even better. The development of the story arc is fast paced and the various enemies as well as friends keep me guessing from book to book. I am extremely excited to see where this goes... this has the potential to be my number one in the near future!