Set in the fictional college town of Arkham, Massachusetts, THIN PLACES is the second installment in Barbara Cottrell’s The Shadows of Miskatonic series. It follows protagonist Ellen Logan, a Miskatonic University undergrad with psychic abilities, and her increasingly perilous experiences in supernatural and the Lovecraftian Dreamlands.
While documenting supernatural phenomena at a haunted house, Ellen and a team of fellow undergrads get a nasty surprise when a body is dropped on the roof. When Ellen investigates, she’s met with a monstrous winged creature—and its victim, a college-age man barely clinging to life. After nearly falling prey herself, Ellen and the team report the crime and hand over their video footage, only to find that creature and victim have disappeared without a trace. When the real threat makes itself known at Miskatonic, Ellen and art history professor Andrew Carter are involuntarily thrust together again to address it. Who, or what, is the mysterious Solomon Reye? And is he responsible for the murder of Dr. Carter’s student?
Chock full of the occult and supernatural, THIN PLACES is a dark thriller operating in the world of H. P. Lovecraft and there are enough details to intrigue even those outside the fandom. But while devoted to the genre and mythos, the book’s narrative is jumpy and lacks exposition and backstory. Careening from one scene to another, the novel gives little sense of time passing and few effective scene transitions. Because the story’s impetus is a mystery for the majority of the telling, the plot often seems inscrutable. (And when revealed, it’s unfortunately brief.) Throughout, Ellen’s and Andrew’s characterizations are flat and their motives opaque. Ellen’s in particular range from confusing to fatuous, especially regarding her many (sudden) love interests. Taken together, these elements cast a shadow of undue hastiness and haphazardness over a story with an intriguing idea at its core. While it could use line and developmental editing to hone its rough edges, THIN PLACES is nonetheless well copy edited and grammatically correct and provides an action-packed adventure in the Cthulhu Mythos.
With a wide array of characters, monsters and worlds, Barbara Cottrell’s THIN PLACES gives readers an action-packed adventure that die-hard H.P. Lovecraft fans will adore.
~R. Poore for IndieReader