A serial killer is loose in Schenectady; at first he preys only on prostitutes, but soon decides to take his victims from the general public. Detective Chris Stewart is on the case, but the police find it hard going -- there are no clues other than the killer's MO which is gruesome, to say the least. The killer leaves a letter, and it makes absolutely no sense to Stewart or anyone else until a teenager visiting one of Stewart's friends discovers that the letter is filled with references to HP Lovecraft and the mythos. Off he goes to find an expert and finds the owners of a store specializing in books of horror, among other things, and begins his education into the world of HP Lovecraft. But there is a timeline...the killer, like so many practitioners of the dark arts before him, plans to unleash a terrible evil upon the world.

So far so good, right? If the author had left it at that, this could have been an awesome novel...full of Lovecraft references and those of his followers and imitators, it could have been delightful to someone like myself who really enjoys this stuff. But the author chose to go off on so many tangents and throw in a lot of unnecessary fill that made the reading an ordeal. Some of the dialog was beyond pulpy, especially the scenes with the killer and his cousins --- even for a book you know is totally out there, this was just bad.

There were a couple of things I liked about this book. First, it was fun to watch some of the characters discovering that Lovecraft (and those who contributed to the overall mythos) may not have just been writing fictional, pulpy occult stories but may have actually been speaking truth. Second, although it was often tedious to slog through, I had a good time making notes of the references the author throws out and running to the internet to look them up.

If you're a die-hard Mythos fan, and happen to have this in your collection, go ahead and read it, but otherwise, it's not one of the best entries in the Chaosium Call of Cthulhu fiction series. And whatever you do, do not make this your first foray into the world of HP Lovecraft or you may never go back. ( )