by James Lovegrove

Titan Books, out now

Holmes and Watson must learn what happened during a doomed expedition…

James Lovegrove’s Holmes and Lovecraft mash-up started off well last year with his reworking of the very early days of Holmes and Watson’s friendship, suggesting that there were many many things that the latter kept quiet during his retellings of their adventures – notably that they were dealing with the creatures from Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos. I did wonder if it might be the sort of conceit that worked once but would pall if overused, and one suspects Lovegrove and his editors thought likewise, since things have been mixed up for this second outing.

Taking a cue once again from the published works, this tells two stories – one of Holmes and Watson’s investigations, and the other of the expedition itself, the latter part taking up a good chunk of the book’s second half before leading into the conclusion featuring the detectives. It allows Lovegrove the chance to have his cake and eat it – he gets the opportunity to write a “straight” piece of Lovecraftian fiction while still interpolating it into the wider Holmes canon. Inevitably, given that their histories vary considerably from the “real” Holmes and Watson, the pair are characterised differently from that provided by Conan Doyle (and Lovegrove himself, Cavan Scott and all the other recent contributors to the saga).

Lovegrove meshes the pulpy elements of the story with the detective element well, and I shall be very intrigued to see how he concludes this trilogy next year.

Verdict: Another suspenseful and unusual mash-up. 9/10

Paul Simpson