'When two spiritist swindlers accidentally summon something horrific from beyond the stars, they must thwart a sinister time-spanning plot, in this first Victorian-era gaslight fantasy set in the world of Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu. London, 1891.
'Elizabeth Whittle and William Grant enjoy scalping London’s bourgeoise, taking on the persona of grand spiritist Cerulia Trent and her agent to connect the living and the dead. When a detective arrives, sniffing out fraud with a scientifically minded spiritualist society, the duo decides to take one last job before escaping to the continent. However, their final séance ends horrifically… and soon Lizzie isn’t Lizzie anymore. William, desperate to banish whatever monster they summoned, is soon embroiled in an electrifying eldritch mystery where he makes a deal with the devil to save his friend and stop an even greater evil from transforming the known world.'
I have a very soft spot for Victorian era fiction, especially when it involves horror or the unusual, and as such finding out that the Arkham Horror series was going to be branching out into this era made The Shadow on the Glass a book that I was absolutely going to read.
The Shadow on the Glass takes readers to Victorian London, where we meet a pair of con-artists, William Grant and Elizabeth Whittle, who are taking advantage of the rise of spiritualism in Britain at the time to make some quick cash off of some gullible rich folks who want to contact the spirit world. With Elizabeth posing as the medium Cerulia Trent, the two of them think that they might have pushed things a little too far and need to leave the country and lay low. However, before leaving, they decide to do one last job, targeting Sir Donovan Clay, a wealthy businessman who's just returned to England from Australia, and is looking to contact his late wife.
The two con-artists put on their usual show, pretending to contact the spirit world; but when the ritual takes a strange turn it leave Elizabeth changed. Now it seems like the world of the paranormal the two of them were mocking, that they didn't believe in, has come calling, and it's ready to make the two of them pay a heavy price.
Jonathan L Howard has some experience writing in this field, having received acclaim for his Johannes Cabal series, which featured the supernatural, dark entities, and con-men. Having not read his other series, I can't say how similar the those are to this, but from my understanding it fits well within the tone of this book, including the small sprinkles of humour scattered throughout. Howard seems able to walk this wonderfully fine line between horror and humour, with a ton of great characters and interesting lore building thrown in. Just from what I read here, his work reminds me a little of one of my favourite authors, Derek Landy, who does this with younger readers in mind, but also manages to capture this kind of flavour well.
Whilst there is humour in the book this doesn't mean that this a comedy by any means, and the narrative is still very much dictated by horror with some truly spooky moments that will cause you to shudder. The dark, gaslit streets of Victorian London make for a perfect setting for the kind of horror that Howard does here, and it's also a perfect marriage for the Lovecraftian horror that the Arkham Horror series is beloved for. It's such a good fit that my mind often thinks that this is the kind of era that most of Lovecraft's stories, and the subsequent fiction that draws upon them, are set in. I often have to remind myself that it takes place decades later, but this time round I didn't have to do that, and I loved the experience. Much like the recent exploration into the Regency era for the series with Secrets & Sacrifices it seems that taking the elements of the Arkham Horror series and putting them in new locations leads to some of the more interesting and original feeling books in the range.
For those that enjoy the Arkham Horror books but are looking for a different take on things, or who might be finding the same setting as usual a bit stale, The Shadow on the Glass makes for a wonderful refresh, a grate palate cleanser that offers something new that can reinvigorate your enjoyment of the franchise. The things that you like about these stories, the questionable characters, the evil cults, ancient gods, and unknowable horrors, are all here, and so long time fans will very much feel at home.
No comments:
Post a Comment