Seamus Cooper, The Mall of Cthulhu
(Night Shade Books, 2009)
Ted is a barista in a Boston coffee bar whose biggest intellectual pursuit is attempting to create the perfect latte. His best friend Laura is an FBI agent condemned to searching endless ATM security camera footage for images of Whitey Bulger. Ted and Laura were first thrown together on the night they found out that vampires are real.
Now it's ten years later and vampires begin to seem like a relatively small problem when Ted finds out that a group of cultists are trying to bring Cthulhu into his and Laura's world.
Can Ted get over the trauma of that terrible night ten years ago and find the courage to combat the evil Cthulhu worshipers? Will Laura ever find someone in the government who believes her about this threat to the world as we know it? Will Ted and Laura stop bickering long enough to work together and save the world?
Seamus Cooper has written a fast and funny novel featuring an unbelievably inept and awkward hero who's not too proud to run away. You can pretty much judge this book by the cover art (done by Scott Altmann), which shows Ted with an ax in one hand and a pot of coffee in the other.
The Mall of Cthulhu is a lighthearted romp through the world of Lovecraft. The use of the word "lighthearted" is intentional, because Cooper's writing is neither particularly Lovecraftian in style or tone, so anyone looking for eldritch horrors should look somewhere else. However, if one is searching for a comic tale of reluctant (and often not very dangerous) heroes, The Mall of Cthulhu is a satisfying read.
The one element which does seem like a misstep on the author's part is his over-reliance on jokes involving the usual clichéd stereotypes of Lovecraft fans and gamers as geeks who can't get a date. These jokes sound a distinct sour note, especially considering that these are the type of readers most likely to pick up The Mall of Cthulhu in the first place.
