[Book Review] Carter & Lovecraft
Carter & Lovecraft / Jonathan L. Howard (Powell's Books)
Daniel Carter was just another homicide cop, until things shifted in his life when they apprehended a serial killer obsessed with discovering accessing alternative realities, and who was using amateur brain surgery on young boys to further his studies. Life as a P.I. didn't turn out to be glamorous, but it helps him escape a strangeness that won't leave him alone.
At least, that was the plan, and that's what he keeps telling himself.
But an unexpected inheritance, then an unexplained murder, keep bringing him back into something he'd rather not face or discover. Resignation isn't really an option this time around.
I'm left feeling a bit unsure of how I feel about this book. I was really excited about it when I first found it, and it definitely has a solid premise. In the end, there's a certain eeriness that it never hits, and a certain amount where I feel like the book is just leading the reader around by the nose. I feel like the premise, and even the title, are solidly aimed at readers who have a good idea of who H. P. Lovecraft was, and may even recognize the name Randolph Carter, let alone many of the other references laced throughout, and the story doesn't really deliver for that audience. It's not a bad read, a light procedural novel with a bit of the eldritch, just one that I expected more from.
Advance Reader Copy courtesy of St. Martin's Press (Macmillian) in exchange for an honest review; changes may exist between galley and the final edition.
Daniel Carter was just another homicide cop, until things shifted in his life when they apprehended a serial killer obsessed with discovering accessing alternative realities, and who was using amateur brain surgery on young boys to further his studies. Life as a P.I. didn't turn out to be glamorous, but it helps him escape a strangeness that won't leave him alone. At least, that was the plan, and that's what he keeps telling himself.
But an unexpected inheritance, then an unexplained murder, keep bringing him back into something he'd rather not face or discover. Resignation isn't really an option this time around.
I'm left feeling a bit unsure of how I feel about this book. I was really excited about it when I first found it, and it definitely has a solid premise. In the end, there's a certain eeriness that it never hits, and a certain amount where I feel like the book is just leading the reader around by the nose. I feel like the premise, and even the title, are solidly aimed at readers who have a good idea of who H. P. Lovecraft was, and may even recognize the name Randolph Carter, let alone many of the other references laced throughout, and the story doesn't really deliver for that audience. It's not a bad read, a light procedural novel with a bit of the eldritch, just one that I expected more from.
Advance Reader Copy courtesy of St. Martin's Press (Macmillian) in exchange for an honest review; changes may exist between galley and the final edition.
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