• Mall of Cthulhu, by Seamus Cooper

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    Published on 04-03-2010 07:19 PM  Number of Views: 695  
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    Mall of Cthulhu by Seamus CooperMall of Cthulhu, by Seamus Cooper
    Reviewed by Trudy Myers

    Publisher: Night Shade Books
    Year Published: 2009
    ISBN: 978-1597801270

    At some point between my agreeing to review this book and its arrival on my doorstep, I slapped my forehead and cried out, "What was I thinking? I hate Lovecraft!" Luckily for me, Seamus Cooper did not try to re-create Lovecraft's style, only tell a story that had some connection with Lovecraft's universe.

    Fledgling FBI agent Laura Harker is trying to live her life as best she can, despite the horrible incident she lived through in college where an acquaintance saved her from facing unending life. That acquaintance, Ted, is still hanging around, and she still lets him hang around, because they alone know the horror that they went through together. Ted, it seems, will never get over it, can barely hang on to his dead-end, mind-numbing job in a coffee shop.

    Through no fault of his own, Ted gets tangled up in a vague mention of a cult of Cthulhu followers. This knowledge gets his employer's shop shot up, killing several people, so obviously, the cult is real. Dragging Laura along, Ted sets out to find these nefarious people before they can call Cthulhu into our world and kill or enslave billions of people.

    In the midst of this adventure, Ted finds the love of his life. Laura is delayed by FBI red tape, so it is Cayenne who assists Ted when the cultists begin the spell that will open the dimensional door and allow Cthulhu into our world. They manage to stop the spell before the doorway gets very large, but Cayenne is tossed into the other dimension, and Ted dives in after her before it slams shut. Meanwhile, Laura gets to use all the combat skills she's learned as an FBI agent, and eventually, she manages to re-open that dimensional door to rescue them.

    This was my first taste of the work of Seamus Cooper. I found it entertaining, the characters mostly believable. Some of the FBI agents were a bit one-dimensional, but since they weren't major players, I didn't find them too distracting. I am not familiar with the locations used in this story, but they were described just enough to let me envision what was happening, not enough to get me bogged down with details. I'm going to keep my eyes open for more works by Cooper. I encourage to check out this one.

    Buy 'Mall of Cthulhu' at Amazon.com
    Categories:
    1. Dark Fantasy
    2. 4.5 Stars
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