Arkham Detective Agency

by Brian M. Sammons (Editor), C.J. Henderson, Robert M. Price

Strong-jawed private eyes facing off against unknowable ancient evil in Lovecraftian-noir horror. No fainting librarians here, these are tough, capable heroes. And while they may survive their encounters with cosmic evil to fight another day, a terrible price was always paid. Friends were lost, relationships were destroyed, minds were broken. With scars both mental and physical, these champions would get only the briefest of respites before having to rise again to face the next challenge. Knowing that only death or madness would bring their fighting to an end, they nevertheless continued to wage war against the forces of the Cthulhu Mythos. What other choice did they have? This is the world created by author C.J. Henderson who gave readers such modern day pulp heroes as Jack Hagee, Teddy London, Piers Knight, and his most recent Frank Nardi, former N.Y.C. detective, now head of the Arkham Detective Agency. Before C.J. Henderson’s untimely death, many weird fiction authors were invited to this book to play in his world of stoic P.I.s, beautiful dames, and horrible monsters. We are thrilled to bring you the four Frank Nardi stories C.J. finished before his death, and all new stories set in H.P. Lovecraft’s modern day witch-haunted town of Arkham.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Occult Detective, Anthologies, Lovecraftian, Fiction

316 pages, Paperback

First published November 29, 2017

About the author

Brian M. Sammons lives in Michigan, loves horror films and books, writes stories and reviews, edits various books, and is described by his neighbors as “such a nice, quiet man.”

Reviews

[John R. Dailey Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A FINE TRIBUTE IT IS...

Hello, this was really, really good. Most of these stories deserve their own novel. They are way too good for just a short story. Damn good stuff. Thanks.

[Tomasz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rounded up.
Mostly an assemblage of "Lovecraftian bingo" paint-by-numbers stories of indifferent quality by indifferent authors, with only a couple outstanding ones (Joe Pulver channelling James Ellroy - hey, neat!). Basically, when you look for inspiration in something nearly utterly devoid of originality and skill, the results tend to be unspectacular, yeah.

[Jason Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic short story anthology based on the Frank Nardi character created by the late C. J. Henderson. Four of the nineteen stories were written by Henderson and the rest are a wonderful tribute by various Cthulhu mythos authors. Unlike many anthologies, there were no stories that felt like they did not belong. All of them captured the spirit and gritty style of Henderson's writing.
Kudos to everybody involved in this tribute!

[Gavin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collocation of Lovecraftian mysteries

I was drawn into this book by the first story. The collaboration from other authors based on the same detective agency fleshed out the world.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes Lovecraftian Horror and P. I. stories

[Scott Waldie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually enjoyed C. J. Henderson's stories the most of this collection, but found the rest a mixed bag, and I never really enjoyed the lead character, much less that character and his cohorts filtered through other authors' voices. That said, it absolutely honors its premise, and if you pine for more pulp noir Lovecraft material you can do a lot worse.

Halloween Read 5/13 for 2020.

[Ashley Shastany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Detective Frank Mardi and Co.

This book of short stories had me at the edge of my seat that whole time. Each story was connected to the last one in some way and each writers style was apparent in their telling of a case that Detective Mardi and the Arkham Detective Agency tackle. Very cosmic horror and very intriguing.

[Tommy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really fun and shined the most when the stories were more noir detective (some were noir-adjacent). The last story in the book was more action/adventure but it was a fitting end to the collection.

I DNF'd one of the stories (A Walk in the Shadows by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.) that used short choppy sentences and tried to use slang that didn't seem to come naturally to the writer.

[Tony Ciak · Rating 4 out of 5]

nice