A Palm for Mrs Pollifax (Mrs Pollifax #4) 3.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: A Palm for Mrs Pollifax
Series: Mrs Pollifax #4
Author: Dorothy Gilman
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 170
Words: 58K

Absolutely delightful, again. I know I say this each book, but Gilman has given us a character and a story where the balance between taut thriller and cozy comfort walk hand in hand with neither overstepping their bounds. How she does this is a mystery to me but I am loving it.

This time around we’re talking plutonium, bombs, kidnappings and coups. And a completely useless Interpol. Which doesn’t surprise me at all.

This time around Mrs P knows she is getting into some really tricky business because it is plutonium, and enough of the stuff to make a suitcase bomb, and an agent has already been murdered. But like a true patriot, and a true adrenaline junkie, she doesn’t let any of that deter her but plows ahead and damn the torpedoes!

I found Gilman’s portrayal of the young boy and his grandmother to be very effective. He didn’t come across as a child genius, but a boy terrified of having his grandmother killed but who is brave enough to TRY something, anything, to get another adult involved. At the same time he wasn’t written as some cutesy little brat either, for which I was extremely thankful. Much like the story and Mrs P herself, Gilman does a masterful job of balancing everything and making him seem real, believable but not making the situation so grim.

I do feel that things are starting to escalate in terms of plot, and with 10 more books to go, I do wonder what Mrs P will encounter next? If she takes on Godzilla or King Kong though, I’ll be done ;-)

★★★✬☆

From Wikipedia.org

Mrs. Pollifax is dispatched to Switzerland to find some missing plutonium: Mr. Carstairs of the CIA suspects the contraband has been hidden in an upscale clinic in Switzerland. Mrs. Pollifax begins a careful investigation of the guests at the clinic and rapidly befriends a young British man, a Belgian woman, and a young boy and his grandmother from an Arab nation. She soon discovers that very few of the clinic patients are who they claim to be, and she becomes involved in intrigue with men who plan to overthrow the government of a small country. She, of course, displays the courage and ingenuity which Mr. Carstairs has learned to depend on, and she leads her outnumbered friends into the adventure of their lives.

• All of my “Mrs Pollifax” Reviews

Dead Men Live (The Shadow #18) 3.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Dead Men Live
Series: The Shadow #18
Authors: Maxwell Grant
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 150
Words: 45K

We get to play in a full sized castle, In America!

The Shadow is American+Infinity

The situation is one anyone familiar with Atlas Shrugged will recognize. Only instead of all the egghead geniuses being whisked away voluntarily, they are kidnapped and doppleganger corpses left in their place. They are then kept prisoner in the aforementioned castle and made to work on whatever it was that brought them to the attention of the bad guys.

The Shadow has one of his men infiltrate them, infiltrates the gang himself and then causes untold havoc. Guns blazing, fists flying, bodies lying dead all over the place. Just what the Dr ordered in fact.

One interesting thing about reading older books (this was published in the 1930’s, so almost 100 years ago) is you get to see “new” ideas and how they have no idea of the limitations yet. Much like fiction writers of today with their “dna’s” and “black holes” and “quarks” and other scyenze schizzle that they don’t actually understand beyond the most basic level (and that’s partly not their fault, because NOBODY understands the limits of those just yet). In this novel, it is plastic surgery. The bad guys kidnap hobos, etc, who bear a similarity to the people they want to kidnap, the doctor does his presto-chango magic plastic surgery on them and two days later they look just like the guy who is about to be kidnapped. Most of said hobos were then killed in some sort of fiery explosion to deal with fingerprints etc. And nobody is the wiser. I’m not knocking it, it’s just fun to see how those kind of things have change with the reality of the situation. Which is why I’m always skeptical of “scyence” people extrapolating something from a starting point that they barely understand themselves, much less non-specialists.

Another good thing about this story was that it was Harry Vincent’less. I do not like Harry. He’s the male version of Nell Fenwick, who only exists to get tied to train tracks and be rescued by Dudley Do-Right. Or in these books, The Shadow. So a story without Harry getting shot, bopped on the head, kidnapped or almost killed and then miraculously rescued by The Shadow is a good story in my opinion.

★★★✬☆

From Bookstooge.blog

A trio of criminal masterminds kidnap geniuses from various fields for their own personal gain. The Shadow gets wind of the plot and sends in his man Marston to stop it. He also personally gets involved. It ends with the 3 criminals dead, the geniuses rescued, 2 stepbrothers reconciled and The Shadow triumphant.

• All of My “The Shadow” Reviews

Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine (May 2012) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine
Series: May 2012
Editor: Linda Landrigan
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 115
Words: 41K

Having finished up the collections of old Hitchcock anthologies that I had on hand, I found a couple of the “new” Mystery Magazines and decided to try them out. This was touted (on the cover) as the “humor issue” and I’m afraid the writers took that to mean “light and whimsical” instead of as funny.

The stories themselves barely passed muster and if I’d had to read a whole book, instead of a magazine, of them, I think I can safely say this would have gotten 2.5stars. These were the kind of stories that get salted between good stories in the old collections; that way you didn’t notice their mediocrity as much. You just forgot about them. But here, all you had was mediocre and so while I have already forgotten them, I can’t collectively forget them.

I have several issues of this magazine to try out. What does give me hope is that you can still get subscriptions (paper or digital) to AHMM, so they must have done something correct to keep on going this long. I just hope I find out what, because this issue was not very good.

What I am afraid of is that people are so undiscriminating in their reading tastes that anything with Hitchcock’s name will draw them in and they will accept any old sock as a “good story” when it really isn’t.

I’m just being really negative right now though. So here’s to a brighter future in later issues!

★★★☆☆

Table of Contents:

• Department: EDITOR'S NOTE: UNEXPECTED by Linda Landrigan

• Department: THE LINEUP

• Fiction: SHANKS COMMENCES by Robert Lopresti

• Fiction: LEWIS AND CLARK by John M. Floyd

• Fiction: SPRING BREAK by R.T. Lawton

• Department: MYSTERIOUS PHOTOGRAPH: DOGWATCH

• Fiction: WIND POWER by Eve Fisher

• Department: BOOKED & PRINTED by Robert C. Hahn

• Fiction: FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY by Ron Goulart

• Fiction: FASHIONED FOR MURDER by Shauna Washington

• Fiction: MR. CROCKETT AND THE BEAR by Evan Lewis

• Fiction: CARRY-ON by Wayne J. Gardiner

• Department: THE STORY THAT WON

• Department: COMING IN JUNE 2012

• All of My “Alfred Hitchcock” Reviews

Tags:

2024, Alfred Hitchcock, crime fiction, short story collection, ahmm,

Doctor Syn on the High Seas (Doctor Syn #2) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Doctor Syn on the High Seas
Series: Doctor Syn #2
Author: Arthur Russell Thorndike
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 182
Words: 66K

In the first book, which was the last book chronologically and sees Doctor Syn killed (oh, wait, did I just spoil that for you? Oh boo hoo, I am sooooooo sorry. Get over it, pansy), I wondered how someone who was a man of the cloth could preach what he did and still do the things that Doctor Syn did. Well, from this book it is obvious that his theology never went more than skin deep, if even that. To be blunt, Syn was a hypocrite was the start.

He is not a hero or an anti-hero, Syn is a straight up villain. He pillages, plunders and kills with nary a thought or regret and is the very definition of an Evil Pirate Captain. His revenge is the consuming fire in his life, over ruling every other thought and feeling in his head.

From a purely storywise angle, this was good stuff. Syn is talented, skilled, well off and implacable. Nothing stops him and his adventures here are many. When the local lord kidnapped Imogene and her mother near the beginning, I almost put the book down because Thorndike really had me wondering just how far he was going to go with the situation. Thankfully, while the end goal was stated, it never got there.

I’m really up in the air about continuing this series. It is grand adventure, but Syn is a scoundrel and hypocrite and I find that abominable. I will read the next book and if I still feel this way, I’ll be stopping. There is no need to read about or promote scoundrels and villains.

★★★☆☆

From Bookstooge.blog

Doctor Syn (a Doctor of Theology), a young man at seminary college, meets and falls in love with a beautiful spanish girl. He and his close friend save her and her mother from falling into the financial clutches of a local lord with the worst of reputations. Imogene in turn falls in love with Dr Syn. Stymied, the local lord decides to get his revenge by kidnapping Imogene and her mother and forcing Imogene to marry him. They are rescued by Dr Syn and friend and the local lord is killed, to nobody’s regret, not even his nephew, who now inherits and was a one time suitor to Imogene.

Dr Syn and Imogene marry and move to Romney Marsh. But it is too gloomy for Imogene and she goes back to one of the big towns to “help her mother”. She meets her former suitor and they seduce each other and run away to Spain together. Dr Syn gives up the cloth and vows revenge. He begins to chase them down.

He is then captured by pirates but because of his brains and skill at sword play, kills the pirate captain and takes over the crew. He loots the sea to fuel his fortune to hunt down Imogene and the Seducer. He blows up the pirate ship he is on, killing all the pirates and takes the treasure for himself. He continues his chase but each time, never quite catches them. He goes pirating again and repeats the same formula as before.

Eventually, Imogene and the Seducer drop out of sight and Dr Syn makes his way back to Romney Marsh to settle down to what unsettled peace he can have. The book ends with the ship he is on crashing on the shores of Romney Marsh and Dr Syn swimming for shore.

Conan and the Emerald Lotus (Conan the Barbarian #20) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Conan and the Emerald Lotus
Series: Conan the Barbarian #20
Author: John Hocking
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 209
Words: 70K

This was BARELY 3stars. I really thought about knocking it down to 2.5, but it did have some pretty good action scenes, so that saved it.

Once I was done reading this, I went to find a synopsis online to use for this review and somebody seriously screwed up. The blurb from the publisher is completely wrong and/or misrepresents what actually happens in the story and if I had read it first, I’d be seriously annoyed. I’m still annoyed, but not enough to do more than write this one little paragraph about it. And it’s not even the author’s fault; it’s all on the publisher. Sometimes I despise publishers as much as I do writers.

I guess my biggest issue with this story was that the wizard, one who dealt specifically with plant based magics, somehow thinks he can use the Emerald Lotus and not get addicted to it? He experimented on two other wizards, one of who died from withdrawal symptoms for goodness sake. It was exactly like watching a heroine junkie. My issue is that he should have known better and we’re given no reason why he suddenly went “stupid” and used it with no safeguards in place. That’s just plain bad story telling right there.

There was also the distinct lack of full, heaving bosoms, luscious thighs and shapely buttocks. At this point I feel that words like those are part of the Conan lore as much as the descriptions of Conan’s mighty thews, piercing blue eyes and rough cut black hair. Conan is just as randy in this story as in any of the others, but Hocking seems to feel the need to pull a feather down blanket on his descriptions instead of the gauzy silk we’re used to. It’s not necessarily good or bad, but it is different and finding differences in style for the authors who write these Conan fan-ficts is part of why I read them :-)

This was Hocking’s only Conan story and I’m glad of that. Means I don’t have to spend any time hunting down any more by him and since I wasn’t impressed by this, I certainly won’t be searching out any other books by him.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia & Bookstooge.blog

Having refused to enter the service of a Stygian wizard, Ethram-Fal, Conan suffers a curse which is gradually robbing him of his life. The beautiful sorceress, Lady Zelandra, offers to lift his curse if Conan retrieves for her a deadly emerald lotus which she is addicted to—currently in the possession of Ethram-Fal. To save his own life from the evil wizard, Conan must challenge Ethram-Fal again by stealing Zelandra's prize from his desert fortress. During his adventure, Conan faces off against bandits, a demon disguised as an oasis, and zombie bodyguards. He's aided in his quest by the dagger-throwing Neesa and a mute thief named Heng Shih.

-That is from Wikipedia and bears absolutely no relation to the actual book beyond the characters’ names.

Ethram-Fal, rejected from the Black Circle, vows to find the legendary Emerald Lotus, an unearthly plant that increases a wizards power one hundred fold. He finds it and uses two wizards to experiment with it. One of them dies from withdrawal, but not before he kills his own servant and zombifies him to chase down and kill Conan, who refused a job from him. Conan ends up with the other wizard, who is going after Ethram-Fal to kill him and gain enough of the Emerald Lotus dust to wean herself off of it.

So they go into the deepest desert to track down Ethram-Fal, who has taken over the palace of a mythological Stygian sorcerer from millennia ago. Bad things happen, Ethram-Fal is killed by the living plant of the Emerald Lotus and Conan goes on his merry way.

• The “Essential Conan” Trilogy

• All of My “Conan” Reviews

A Man Lay Dead (Roderick Alleyn #1) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: A Man Lay Dead
Series: Roderick Alleyn #1
Author: Ngaio Marsh
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 153
Words: 49K

This had the misfortune to be read immediately after a Nero Wolfe book. But it had the good fortune of me having issues with said Nero Wolfe book, so in the end, it all evens out.

Nancy, who blogs on Random Thoughts, brought this series to my attention back in ‘22 (Nancy’s Review of A Man Lay Dead). She has continued to read the series and each one that she has reviewed has kept my interest level simmering. Therefore, only two years later, I have taken the plunge myself. Pretty good, eh?

There are 33’ish Roderick Alleyn novels and as such, I will be reading a couple then taking a break and then coming back. Much like I am doing with the Discworld books. Very few series are written well enough to be consumed continuously every 6-9 weeks. Nero Wolfe is such a series but from my reading of this, I’ll need the break.

The influence of Agatha Christie is quite evident and this almost bordered on the “cozy”. If it weren’t for the inclusion of some Communist plots, and a few well placed needles under our heroes fingernails, I’d be adding a cozy tag for sure. When someone gets murdered in a house and it has to be one of the guests, and they all go on with each other like it’s no big deal, that’s quintessential “cozy” to me.

This was written in the 1930’s and shows the culture and mores of the times quite well. The man who is killed was a womanizing jackass and I wasn’t sad at all that he was killed. He was carrying on with a married woman, who was unrepentant about the affair after it’s revelation. Very seamy and unpleasant. I have a feeling Marsh will dive into that tainted pool throughout the series, so I’m trying to prepare myself.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

Journalist Nigel Bathgate somewhat begrudgingly attends a weekend house party at the estate of Sir Hubert Handesley. Sir Hubert is known for his elaborate murder games. Amongst the other guests are Nigel's womanizing cousin Charles Rankin, Sir Hubert's niece Angela North, Arthur and Marjorie Wilde, Rosamund Grant and Dr. Tokareff, a Russian doctor. Charles shows off a Russian dagger he recently acquired which causes Tokareff to rebuke him. That dagger belongs to a secret Russian brotherhood and is said to bring tragedy to anyone who possess it and is not a member of the brotherhood.

The weekend party is off to a tense start. Rankin makes unwanted passes at the women in attendance. The Wildes argue over their debt, largely collected by Marjorie. Arthur Wilde becomes the brunt of several jokes that culminate with Rankin pantsing him in front of several guests. Nigel overhears Mrs. Wilde having an affair with Charles.

Vassily, the Russian butler, begins the murder game by covertly selecting the killer. The killer has roughly a day and a half to tap another guest on the shoulder to "kill" them then ring a gong to signal that the murder has occurred. The other guests must remain still for two minutes to allow the killer to establish an alibi. In the evening, the gong sounds out but when the guests investigate, they find Charles Rankin genuinely murdered with his Russian dagger in his back.

Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn is called in to investigate. Everyone has some kind of alibi. Charles was murdered on the ground floor while everyone else was upstairs. Arthur Wilde admits to being the killer in the murder game but Nigel, who strikes up a friendship with Alleyn, provides him with an alibi. Wilde then confesses to killing Charles but is unable to provide accurate information as to how he pulled it off. Alleyn speculates Wilde is covering for his wife.

There are few clues to aid Alleyn. The dagger lacks fingermarks and the staff saw no one come downstairs. Alleyn discovers a partially charred glove in the fireplace that belongs to Mrs. Wilde who claims the glove went missing earlier. No one seems to have a satisfying motive. Nigel inherits Rankin's estate while Sir Hubert inherits the dagger. Wilde also receives a small inheritance. Alleyn begins to consider the possibility Rankin's murder may be connected to a murder in London associated with Russian Communists. However, this turns out to be a dead end.

In the denouement, Alleyn reveals all. Arthur Wilde murdered Charles Rankin. His confession was simply a misdirect to clear his name. The Wildes were heavily in debt and needed the small but sufficient inheritance Charles left. Wilde created an alibi for himself by talking to Nigel through their shared bathroom door. Wilde turned on the bathtub then ran into the hallway through the door in his bedroom. To save time, he slid down the banister and stabbed Charles on the way down. In under a minute, Wilde was back in the bathtub, talking to Nigel through the latter's connecting door. Although Nigel provided Wilde with an alibi, only Nigel was doing the talking.

The novel ends with Nigel, now a rich man, free to pursue the heart of Angela North.

Champagne for One (Nero Wolfe #31) 3.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Champagne for One
Series: Nero Wolfe #31
Author: Rex Stout
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 155
Words: 59K

I enjoyed reading this, but at the same time, it felt really, really, REALLY sameold/sameold.

I also had a serious problem with who was murdered and why, once it was all revealed. I could understand the Murderess and why she wanted to kill, but why did she go after her late husband’s illegitimate daughter instead of against the woman who he allegedly knocked up? It’s like blaming the cake for being burned instead of blaming the chef who forgot to set the timer.

And for the first time, Archie annoyed me. I get that he and Wolfe have a complicated relationship where they trust each other yet get on each other’s nerves, but that’s no reason for Archie to act like a total child because Wolfe won’t let him take part in another part of the case. He really gets petulant this time around. I don’t know why it bothered me so much this time around, but it did.

All the elements of a good Wolfe mystery were here and like I said at the beginning, I enjoyed this. I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I could have.

★★★✬☆

From Wikipedia

Archie Goodwin receives a phone call from an acquaintance, Austin "Dinky" Byne, asking for a favour. Byne routinely acts as a chaperone for an annual dinner hosted by his aunt, Louise Grantham Robilotti, which is given in honour of four young unwed mothers living at Grantham House, a charity supported by her late husband. Byne claims to have a cold and is unable to attend; although skeptical, Archie agrees to stand in for him, despite Mrs. Robilotti's being a former client of Nero Wolfe's who bears him a personal dislike. During the dinner, Archie learns from one of the unwed mothers that another, Faith Usher, has a bottle of cyanide in her purse; Faith has been suffering from depression, and her friend fears that she might attempt suicide. Archie promises to watch over her, but towards the end of the evening Faith collapses and dies from cyanide poisoning after drinking a glass of champagne.

Alone of the guests, Archie maintains that Faith Usher did not commit suicide, claiming that he observed her constantly throughout the evening and that she never had an opportunity to pour the cyanide from her bottle into her glass. Although the authorities and the other guests pressure Archie into changing his story, Nero Wolfe believes him and decides to settle the matter by solving the case himself. He is given further incentive to do so when Edwin Laidlaw, another of the chaperones, approaches him to hire his services; Laidlaw is the father of Faith Usher's child after a brief affair they had the previous year and, ashamed of his conduct, is desperate that his secret is not revealed.

Although Wolfe's investigation begins unpromisingly, he becomes convinced that his suspicions are correct when the police receive an anonymous tip revealing Laidlaw's secret. Although the police are skeptical due to the tip's anonymous nature, it suggests to Wolfe that someone else knows Laidlaw's secret and has become agitated by the ongoing investigation. His investigations begin to focus on both Faith Usher's estranged mother Elaine, herself an unwed mother, and Dinky Byne, whose false reasons for canceling on the party look increasingly suspect given the events. He assigns Saul Panzer and Archie to investigate the two respectively, leading to a break in the case when both Archie and Saul tail their respective targets to the same location: a nightclub where Elaine Usher and Dinky Byne are meeting with each other.

When confronted by Wolfe, both Byne and Elaine Usher attempt to lie their way out of the situation, but their stories are inconsistent. Byne admits that he knew that Laidlaw was the father of Faith Usher's child, and claims that he had them both invited to the dinner without their knowledge as a spiteful prank. During their conversation, however, Orrie Cather infiltrates Byne's apartment and discovers a letter revealing that Mrs. Robilotti's deceased first husband, Albert Grantham, was the father of Faith Usher. This, coupled with some unwittingly suggestive comments from Byne, leads Wolfe to identify the murderer.

Summoning the guests to his office, he has them reenact the circumstances under which Faith Usher received the poisoned champagne multiple times. This demonstrates that Mrs. Robilotti's son Cecil, who gave Faith the poisoned champagne, had a routine way of handing over a glass that someone who knew his habits would be able to predict. He accuses Mrs. Robilotti of poisoning Faith Usher; Byne was blackmailing her with the knowledge that her former husband was Faith's father and invited Faith to the dinner as a threat. Mrs. Robilotti murdered Faith to conceal the secret and out of resentment over her husband's affair and, learning that she was in the habit of carrying cyanide, acquired some from another source to make it look like a suicide. Archie is vindicated, and Mrs. Robilotti is taken into custody.

• All My “Nero Wolfe” Reviews

Cthulhu Resurgent (Cthulhu: Harrison Peel #2) 2.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Cthulhu Resurgent
Series: Cthulhu: Harrison Peel #2
Editor: David Conyers
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Short Story Collection
Pages: 262
Words: 108K

This is where I get off the Harrison Peel train. Once again, he goes through some mind breaking experiences (his fiance is killed in front of his eyes by a shoggoth masquerading as a human) and while not shrugging it off, pretty much does shrug it off. He should have been left a mindless, gibbering wreck. Instead, he just soldiers on. Usually, that’s what I want. But as I discussed in the review for the first book (Cthulhu Reloaded), that is NOT what I want, or any true fan wants, when it comes to Cosmic Horror. Conyers continues to snub his nose at convention, so I say “phooiey” to him!

Not a very good start to my reading month, now is it?

★★✬☆☆

Table of Contents & From the Publisher:

• "The Spiraling Worm" (2007) (by David Conyers and John Sunseri)

• "The Road to Afghanistan" (2013)

• "The Eye of Infinity" (2014)

• "The Temporal Deception" (2015) (by David Conyers and C. J. Henderson)

• "The Gravity Museum" (2021)

Humans are a mistake. The laws of physics prove it.

Army intelligence officer Major Harrison Peel has spent a lifetime fighting eldritch horrors, constantly clawing through the veil of reality ready to annihilate our world. But how do you win the war when these alien gods — and not terrestrial life — are the true nature of reality? In Antarctica, a new threat emerges. Shape-shifting aliens called Shoggoths that can mimic people and integrate into human society, who are manipulating us from within. Then Peel discovers their true intensions… If Peel can’t defeat these Shoggoths abominations, they won’t just destroy us, but enslave humanity into a billion years of servitude…

• All of My “Cthulhu Anthology” Reviews