A Desperate Houseboys Novel

Caldera Queens of La'Lesbos

They came for the crystal. They stayed for the boutiques.

Platinum hair. Diamanté stilettos from outer space. One volcano that absolutely will not stay dormant — and a family holiday about to become a war.

By Scooter Rooter  ·  Standalone caper  ·  Out now

Book cover: The Caldera Queens of La'Lesbos — three glamorous alien drag queens on a volcanic beach beneath a sky-beam.

The volcano opens. Out descends an invading court of extraterrestrial drag queens — and the only thing standing between them and the galaxy is a bar owner, a former president in a wheelchair, and Stephanie Furburgen's ego.

The Story

Stephanie had survived assassins, international scandals, several disastrous marriages and a career in which she had been declared dead by the entertainment press no fewer than four times. She was not about to be defeated by a drag queen from outer space.

The gang arrive by seaplane at La'Lesbos — a tiny tropical island that doesn't quite exist on any map — as guests of former Schniezeland president Rowanus Blockowitz. There are boutiques to catalogue, old flames to reignite, and one volcano everyone politely tells the tourists not to visit.

Then the crystal starts glowing. And the guardian of it whispers: "Fuck. Not again."

Twenty-seven years after they were last driven off Earth, the Caldera Queens are back — beautiful, vicious and here for one thing only. When the sky tears open above the crater, the family that was once whole must stop hiding, pick up whatever alien hardware they can find, and save the island. Preferably before Labour Day.

The three Caldera Queens on the beach outside the Caldera Club as a white-cobalt beam erupts from the volcano.

The Ensemble

Meet the Cast

Everyone came for a holiday. Nobody's leaving unchanged.

The Holiday Party

The Locals

The Antagonists

The Caldera Queens

Do not, whatever you do, wear white shoes after Labour Day.

Praise (allegedly)

The Reviews Are In

A glorious collision between a European resort editorial, a late-'90s queer paperback and a dry Australian ensemble comedy. Camp treated completely seriously.

The Sandbar Review

This is not invasion, dah-link. This is cultural vandalism. Five diamanté stilettos out of five.

S. Furburgen, verified attendee

Excellent boutiques. Wonderful people. Avoid volcanic excursions after sunset.

Dottie's draft shopping itinerary

A Taste

Read the Opening

Act I — Holiday on La'Lesbos

Late that evening, after everyone had gone home, Sonia unlocked a hidden chamber beneath the Caldera Club. Inside sat the teleport crystal, recovered from the wreckage of Mattasha's ship twenty-seven years earlier.

For the first time since Sydney, it began to glow.

Sonia didn't panic. She'd known this day was possible from the moment she'd cartwheeled through a pair of closing red-lip doors and brought an entire alien spacecraft down over the caldera. She simply looked at the light pulsing under her palm, poured herself something strong, and said the only sensible thing there was to say.

"Fuck. Not again."

Available Now

Get Caldera Queens

The complete standalone caper. Paperback, ebook, and one very glamorous cover.

Part of the Desperate Houseboys universe