The Sign of Glaaki

[Old Dwarf]

By Steven Savile & Steve Lockley

Where do I begin to give full justice to this train wreck. First of all No freebies (+shipping) from FFG(not that it effects the book itself).The Sign of Glaaki differs from FFG's usual Mythos books in that it's stand alone and the Heroes are not Arkham Investigators but Harry Houdini & Dennis Wheatley ( the British Thriller & occult writer). Joe Diamond & Prof. Armitage make brief appearances in a Deus ex Machina role. Darke's Carnival is also included but not really developed.

Another real life character is Max Schreck the German actor who played the Vampire in Nosferatu, it's rather a puzzle as to why he's included basically as a red herring it seems. References to both Houdini's & Wheatley's real life experiences are dropped from time but unless you really know details about their lives it can leave you wondering what they mean.

The dropping of Glaaki ,who is a resident of a lake in the Severn Valley & thus a true Brit, into a lake in Dunwich can sort of be excused by it's being reported in other lakes around the world but it's rather jarring & you do have to stretch a bit to compare Ramsey Campbell's Servants of Glaaki with the ones in this book but they are both Zombie like & have abnormal growths which can translate into the freaks present in this book.

The story itself is basically a murder mystery with growing occult overtones & toward the end
goes full Mythos with Cult Rituals & even Glaaki showing up. It's a page turner but frankly it's
full of loose ends. It starts with a prologue that features a character who never shows in the story, the ending includes a plot twist that rather makes a lot of the story pointless & you could weave a rug with all the loose ends.

All in all for me it was an interesting read but not a good read too much didn't jell together to satisfy my Mythos fix.

OD