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Hard Boiled Cthulhu: Two Fisted Tales of Tentacled Terror,  is an anthology of short stories wherein the Lovecraft mythos meets film noir; the Call of Cthulhu meets The Big Sleep.  It’s a great idea as this is such an excellent setting for such tales, often overlooked both in fiction and in the COC role play game.  The book contains twenty-one contributions by a wide range of writers all of whom have a passion for Lovecraft’s creations.  With a few exceptions this is the only time they have been available in print.

The book itself is some 330 pages and contains the following;

Sleeping with the Fishes (Poem) — James Ambuehl
The Pisces Club — James Ambuehl
A Change of Life — William Jones
Ache — David Witteveen
A Dangerous High — E. P. Berglund
A Little Job in Arkham — John Sunseri
Day of Iniquity — Steven L. Shrewsbury
Eldritch Fellas — Tim Curran
Outside Looking In — David Conyers
Pazuzu’s Children — Jeffrey Thomas
The Devil In You — Eric J. Millar
The Mouth — William Meikle
The Questioning of the Azathonthian Priest — C. J. Henderson
Some Thought on the Problem of Order — Simon Bucher-Jones
The White Mountains — Jonathan Sharp
The Terror Came — Patrick Thomas
The Prying Investigations of Edwin M. Lillibridge — Robert M. Price
The Roaches in the Walls — James Chambers
To Skin a Dead Man — Cody Goodfellow
Unfinished Business — Ron Shiflet
The Watcher From the Grave — J. F. Gonzalez
Dreams.biz — Richard A. Lupoff

The book itself is a good quality paperback, glossy cover, nice paper, crisp print, in fact just what I have come to expect from Elder Sign Press.  As well as the stories themselves there are capsule biographies of each of the contributors.

The tales themselves are generally very good and in many ways they tick many of my boxes, some evoke a really good Lovecraftian atmosphere (In particular Robert M Prices contribution “The Prying Investigations of Edwin M Lillibridge”). Some hit the mark in terms of story; I particularly enjoyed John Sunseri’s “A Little Job In Arkham” which has a little Oceans 11 feel to it, if you want to steal a priceless tome from Miskatonic Uni then you need the right group of thieves’.  A tale, well told with a good twist in the tale. I will certainly be on the lookout for more of Mr Sunseri’s work.

Of all the tales the only one that is somewhat out of place is Steven L Shrewsbury’s “Day of Iniquity” while a great read; it was definitely a good Sword & Sorcery tale, it was not really a detective type story by any stretch of my very elastic imagination. Basically a barbarian follower of Wotan leads his tribe to achieve vengeance on a dark cult.  What was this doing in this book?

For me however there are two highlights.  Richard A. Lupoff’s “Dreemz.biz” is a cracking tale in which an enigmatic web site supplies vivid and dangerous dreams to its occasional customers. Whilst not as “hardboiled” as many of the tales and its Lovecraftian horror only becomes apparent in its closing stages, the feeling of good old “cosmic horror” will stay with you for some time after you finish reading.  

Finally, not everyone’s favourite I’m sure but “Eldritch Fellas” by Tim Curran is brilliant, I won’t spoil it for you by describing the story, but it is at heart a humorous tale which takes the hardboiled genre to its Cthulhian extreme where Lovecraft, Raymond Chandler and Tony Soprano all meet.  You will laugh out loud, even if it’s only at the fart jokes.  

In summary I think this is a great collection of stories, with something for everyone whether it is the genre, the Lovecraftian horror, the humor or the fact that you collection would be incomplete without it.  It was bought for me as a gift, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it as a read and it has left me with many ideas for evil to inflict upon my role play group to boot.

Go on click here and treat yourself!