Issue two of Innsmouth Magazine opens with Nathalie Boisard-Beudin's enjoyable "What's In a Shell?" When Auntie Alice gives Jonathan and his narrator sibling a Russian doll, the pair find themselves opening not just the typical Russian doll-within-a-doll, but worlds within worlds and the gateway to grim frozen constellations. Although it was reasonably obvious where the story was headed, it was well-told and delivered an excellent, blood-chilling ending. "Partum" by Lori M. Myers appeared to be about a black cat and childbirth and was indecipherable and thankfully short, while the best that can be said about "What Appollonius Rhodius Didn't Say" by Berrien C. Henderson is that it is even shorter! "Scream Saver" by Ann K. Schwader has a horrible pun as its title and is one of an ever-growing number of Lovecraftian computer tales – this one has the benefit of being reasonably good. It concerns a computer programme that "generates random angles of opportunity" to facilitate immigrants desperate for the "curved reality of a purer world than their own". The computer as gateway between worlds has been done before but what raises this one is Schwader's excellent pacing and clever phrasing. "Beneath the Red City" by Matthew Bey recounts in grisly, bloody detail how the narrator becomes the most depraved of the Red City's lieutenant slaves and how he became impregnated with "a thousand thousand of her maggot spawn". This is a clever piece of Lovecraftian prophecy that is strange, mystical and cleverly written. It is also unstinting in the gore stakes which made a nice change in style from the vast majority of tales that have appeared in the magazine to date. In summary then, this second issue of the magazine was enjoyable despite having a couple of stories that I couldn't get into and not having anything of really exceptional quality – a good, solid issue. I read these two issues as part of the "Innsmouth Magazine, Collected Issues: 1 - 4" released in 2012 and published by Innsmouth Free Press. ( )