Red Right Hand--A Story of the Mythos War

May 9, 2016
The Cthulhu mythos is a ripe setting for this urban fantasy from Black (a pseudonym for James R. Tuck), but it’s squandered in a series of gruesome, nonstop fight scenes that blur into each other, never coalescing into a cohesive, or even interesting, whole. Charlotte “Charlie” Moore just wants to live her life (in an unnamed location that may be present-day America) in peace, but all hope of that vanishes when she’s attacked by hellhounds. A mysterious man with a red right hand steps in to save her. It turns out that he’s an elder god named Nyarlathotep, and he needs Charlie and her latent magic, which gives her the ability to “see through the veil between worlds,” to keep the other Old Ones from destroying the human race. Charlie is horrified to discover that Nyarlathotep’s seeming altruism is only because he doesn’t want to share the fun of tormenting humans, but when he threatens her love interest, she knows she has no choice but to help him. Charlie’s histrionic internal dialogue is all that passes for character development. Even diehard fans of H.P. Lovecraft and Cthulhu will want to skip Black’s underwhelming, sloppy novel. Agent: Lucienne Diver, Knight Agency.

Starred review from July 1, 2016

After a disastrous date with her not-quite-boyfriend Daniel, Charlie Moore is attacked by three skinless dogs. She is rescued just in time by a tall man wearing a long black coat and carrying a black-bladed sword in his gruesome red right hand. However, this is only the start of her nightmare, as the Man in Black calls upon her, Charlotte Tristan Moore, a descendent of H.P. Lovecraft, to become his acolyte. He's an Elder God and wants Charlie to help him hunt down other gods in order to preserve the human race. While Charlie knows there is much more to the situation than she's being told, the mysterious figure keeps her working for him by forcing Daniel to come along. Their travels introduce Charlie and Daniel to horrors beyond imagination, and they must fight to remain, as their victory may hinge on the outcome of the Man in Black's quest--if he is truly the lesser evil. VERDICT Fans of dark fantasy and horror in full and gory detail will be entranced by this debut novel. It is impossible to turn away once you dive in.--KC

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