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The Shoggoths attack: "They had been so horrible before that I dare not say that they were any MORE horrible when they came again.... They were still unspeakable, still unthinkable--but whether I could speak or think of them or not, they were HERE." Auguste Dupin is one of the few persons who can identify the rare Cthulhu Encryption etched in the flesh of a dying woman. The Comte de Saint-Germain owns a companion cryptogram that he believes is the key to finding a fabulous treasure buried by the pirate Levasseur. Harassed by Shoggoths and tracked by Saint-Germain, Dupin must find the key to the complex puzzle. Can the might of Cthulhu be held at bay? And even if he finds an answer, can he and his friends escape with their lives? A riveting horror novel.

Published by The Borgo Press, March 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4344-3511-8

Review by Sally Startup

This is not a straightforward horror story. It is a complicated, fantastical, intricate and puzzling horror story. It is the fifth in a series about Auguste Dupin, narrated by an American correspondent of Edgar Allan Poe, but the author has taken the trouble to ensure that readers who are not going through the books in order will not miss out.

Since the events described in The Quintessence of August, the unnamed narrator, his friend Dupin, and Pierre Chapelain, a mesmerist, have continued to meet regularly, allowing the narrator to think of them as "the three musketeers". But the Comte de Saint-Germain insists on continually tagging along, even though Dupin still does not trust him.

Chapelain's work involves the treatment of lunatics at Bicêtre, and the story includes some interesting detail about mid-nineteenth-century European understanding of mental illness. Chapelain is concerned about one of his patients in particular: a woman dying of syphilis. She has suddenly developed a most unusual rash which soon becomes of great interest to Dupin. Her mesmeric fantasy involves the other characters in a journey into the forest of Brocceliande, where they meet a pirate and bibliotaph.

Cthulhu's presence threatens, and shoggoths appear. And Dupin is in particular danger, even while he is watched over by his formidible concierge, Madame La Cuzon. Entwined with the action and the horror are several strands of ideas that will reward readers who choose to follow them, as the characters approach "the farther shores of madness", and enlightenment.

The Brian Stableford Website