num_pages: 63
description: A darker shade of Noir: Raymond Chandler meets HP Lovecraft in a novella of mystery and terror to delight detective fans and veterans of the Cthulhu Mythos alike.1927, Chicago: Tough private investigator Ed Jones takes on what looks like a simple assignment to investigate an eccentric German scientist. But Jones knows there's no such thing as easy money...and that there's something his client isn't telling him.The trail leads Jones to a small town in the New England forest, where he's not the only visitor from Chicago: there are machine-gun toting gangsters, a smooth-talking con artist and an assassin who has a way with a garrotte. And then there's the scientist himself, who is a stranger character than Jones could have imagined. The locals don't seem to like any of them -- but they're more afraid of the mysterious hooded figures deep in the forest.Jones is forced to team up with his unlikely comrades, on a trail of unsolved murders and in in the face of a gang of criminals who he begins to suspect are not even human...For those who like their Cthulhu hardboiled, this tale of the roaring Twenties mixes gangland violence with unearthly terror -- and some serious sleuthing as Jones puts together the pieces to figure out what's really going on...Note: This story is included in the collection Shadows from Norwood.
language: English
title: The Thing in the Vault