What a breath of fresh air!  I had been slogging through more mediocre
mythos for some time now and Mall of Cthulhu was just what I needed.
It is a terrific read and I highly recommend it.  I first heard about
it advertised on Amazon in early 2008; publication was delayed until
just recently.  It is a nice trade paperback from Nightshade Books,
listing at $13.95 (discounted a bit by Amazon) and clocking in at a
generous 235 pages, all text.  Editing was good; there were no typos I
could see.  The minibio of the author provides no useful information,
but as far as I can tell this is his first book.  Cover art is by
Scott Altmann.  It’s OK, but with this cover and this title, my first
impression was this was going to be a deliberate attempt at mythos
humor.  As such, I was not particularly enthusiastic when I started
it.  This is actually not what this book is about at all.  The plot
synopsis has minor spoilers, but no more than the blurb on the book.
Skip to the next paragraph if that bothers you.

10 years ago, Laura Harker (and all name coincidences in this book are
decidedly deliberate) was rescued from a sorority house full of
vampires by super nerd, Ted (you know, I’m not sure the author ever
mentioned his last name), who had to slaughter the lot of them.  Fast
forward 10 years and we find Laura is a low level FBI agent who has
trust issues, because she cannot confide in anyone about this terrible
moment in her life.  Ted is a wreck, following his only friend, Laura,
from city to city, holding down odd jobs in coffee shops.  Whenever he
confides the truth to a new girl they think he’s psycho and leave
(Laura is a lesbian so they stay just sort of co-dependent friends).
He is awakened ever night by vivid flashbacks of the bloody events of
that night.  Ted has sort of settled into Boston, making lattes.  He
has to serve an obnoxious customer, who doesn’t notice when he drops a
CD.  In a fit of pique Ted pockets the disk.  Later, as a favor he
brings a coffee to Laura at her job site.  When he gets back to the
coffee shop everyone has been gruesomely murdered.  The obnoxious man
is there and demands the disk from Ted.  Ted manages to escape, and
tries to calm himself while hiding and phoning Laura.  Their life
abruptly takes a turn into the surreal when they discover a conspiracy
of men who are attempting to cause a transdimensional rip with the
Necronomicon that would allow Cthulhu access to our plane where he may
ravage everything.  The bulk of the book describes how Laura and Ted
track down the cult to a mall across from the Masonic Temple in
Providence and attempt to thwart the machinations of the cult.

This book is by no means a comedy; it is more an action thriller.
There is a huge leavening of humorous banter and jokes, but these are
all intrinsic to the characters and their characters.  I laughed out
loud a frequently but I never thought anything was forced.  And what
vivid characters!  Ted and Laura light up the pages, they are so
real.  I know people who act like this!   Even the minor character FBI
agents were deftly drawn.  Only the bad guys and maybe the paranormal
investigator who shows up near the end were little more than plot
contrivances.  Usually I have terrible heartburn when HPL’s fiction is
found to be true; for me it spoils the world building.  In Mall of
Cthulhu it was an organic part of the plot.  Terrific writing with a
propulsive plot and sparkling dialogue trumps everything else.  Mr.
Cooper’s book is wildly inventive; his take on R’lyeh is different
from any other I have read but is very clever and it works well in
this story.  I was so captivated I zipped through the whole book in a
matter of a few hours.  I will happily read his next book, even if it
has no mythos connections.

So is Mall of Cthulhu for all mythos fans?  Well it should be but of
course it isn’t.  If you like Delta Green and Cody Goodfellow, or
perhaps Charlie Stross, then Mall of Cthulhu is for you.  If you only
prefer HPL pastiches you won’t be pleased.  If you demand complete
apocalypse, look elsewhere.  Some readers only care for the dreamy,
equally vivid world of the Sesqua Valley.  To each their own.  For me,
I like all mythos stories that are well written.  Mall of Cthulhu is
an effervescent romp through one man’s take on the mythos.  I was
completely won over and you should be too.

Matt