It is the autumn of 1880, and Dr John Watson has just returned from Afghanistan. Badly injured and desperate to forget a nightmarish expedition that left him doubting his sanity, Watson is close to destitution when he meets the extraordinary Sherlock Holmes, who is investigating a series of deaths in the Shadwell district of London. Several bodies have been found, the victims appearing to have … starved to death over the course of several weeks, and yet they were reported alive and well mere days before. Moreover, there are disturbing reports of creeping shadows that inspire dread in any who stray too close. Holmes deduces a connection between the deaths and a sinister drug lord who is seeking to expand his criminal empire. Yet both he and Watson are soon forced to accept that there are forces at work far more powerful than they could ever have imagined. Forces that can be summoned, if one is brave – or mad – enough to dare…
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Disclaimer, I am a Sherlock Holmes and a H.P. Lovecraft/Cthulhu Mythos fan. That being said, James Lovegrove had big expectations to meet. We are talking BIG expectations. I wanted to feel like I was in a Sherlock Homes adventure with the creep of the Cthulhu Mythos hovering in the background waiting to spring a hell of a trap.
Now, that may not sound like much, but it is. You want the Victorian setting, the gloom of foggy London, the horse drawn carriage, gaslight, back alleys full of danger, BUT you also want the creeping terror coming up your throat and grabbing you and holding you paralyzed as you witness the horror that the Cthulhu Mythos has to offer. Get it now?
James Lovegrove met all of my expectations and then some. He handles Holmes and Watson as if he was born to write them, and proved his excellence by tossing in Cthulhu. I have to say, when he described the statue of Cthulhu at the entrance to the underground city, I got chills. It caught me by the throat, hooked its claws in and dragged me down to the dark part of my soul. I know, heavy words, but worthy words because that is exactly what he did!
This book moves fast, and holds your attention. The lights will go out around you as you read it and Heaven help you if someone taps you on the shoulder while reading it (you will need to bring a change of shorts for that!). This book will not let you go. Oh no. Make no mistake, this is a highly addictive read. If you wake up at two in the morning to use the bathroom, and it is sitting on your nightstand, it will call out to you (like it did me last night and I finished the last two hundred pages because it would not let me stop). This book is a must read!
Combining Sherlock Holmes and HP Lovecraft seems to be one of those fabulous fanfic ideas that just cries out to be explored.
It’s been done to great success too by Neil Gaiman, who shuffled the two packs of cards together to bring a Britain ruled by Great Old Ones and a gentleman detective investigating the worst only to deliver the most exquisite of twists at the end.
James Lovegrove gives us a less radically altered world, with Holmes and his new-found companion Watson probing a series of murders. Only Watson’s history in Afghanistan has brought him an encounter with the unknown, and Holmes has a fondness for investigating the uncanny. It brings them both face to face with eldritch horrors, dream quests and more.
Told in the mannered style of Arthur Conan Doyle with Watson recounting the investigation in classic manner, this is a faithful tribute to the Sherlock tales. It really is a “what if?” pitting Sherlock against the horrors of Lovecraft’s imagination. That’s good and bad in some ways – it could perhaps have been a bit bolder in its plunge into the horror, rather than slowing things down with Sherlock demonstrating his dazzling intellect by predicting how much coffee the police inspector had drunk that morning.
Still, for fans of both literary universes, it very much hits the spot. Perhaps it brings more smiles of recognition than gasps of horror, but that is probably very much its selling point. The unimaginable has become the comfortably familiar for its fans, so settle in and enjoy.
I listened to the audiobook version, with narration by Dennis Kleinman that very much captures the spirit of Watson, following in the wake of a brilliant man into unknown horrors.
Sherlock Holmes is renown for his keen analytical mind and his amazing powers of deductive reasoning. He’s a detective totally grounded in the physical world. So, what would he do if he was confronted by a mystery not of this world? More to the point, what would he do if confronted by the mind-bending otherworldly entities of H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythologies?
If your first thought was—Holmes would either die quickly or go insane—this would not be a good novel for you. But if you think instead that after eliminating the impossible, he would turn to other explanations, no matter how improbable, then you are going to enjoy this book.
Lovegrove suggests that a significant portion of Sherlock Holmes career was spent protecting the world from the entities that humans weren’t meant to know, and this first novel was a compelling and exciting read. I’d like to see more.
What a great mashup! Sherlock Holmes vs cosmic horror? Yes! Excellent, detailed writing. I loved it.
Good story, however, the beginning of a series.