Paul Di Filippo and Claudio Chillemi's The Horror at Gancio Rosso was published by Acheron Books in July 2015.
Information about the authors:
Paul Di Filippo sold his first short story in 1977, and since then has sold over 200 more. They, plus some novels, bring his current total of published works up to thirty-five books. He likes to imagine, against all odds, that he is at the midpoint of his career. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island, Lovecraft's home town, with his partner of 40 years duration, Deborah Newton, a chocolate-colored cocker spaniel named Brownie and a calico cat named Penny Century.
Click here to visit Paul Di Filippo's official website.
Claudio Chillemi is an Italian speculative fiction writer, author of numerous short stories and novels. He lives in Sicily, on the slopes of Etna, with his wife Rosaria, and two turtles, reminding him that life must be addressed slowly.
Click here to visit Claudio Chillemi's official website (in Italian).
Information about The Horror at Gancio Rosso:
A series of mysterious, ritual murders linked to the mummies of the Capuchin Catacombs in Palermo brings Joe Petrosino, the famous Italian-American cop from New York, back to his native land of Sicily to investigate the case.
The investigation reveals an obscure threat coming from a distant past, and maybe even from another dimension.
Can Joe face this threat and crack the case?
Who's the Savage Soldier, whose shadow looms all over these events?
This and much more in a terrifying homage to H.P. Lovecraft set in Italy...
A REVIEW OF PAUL DI FILIPPO AND CLAUDIO CHILLEMI'S THE HORROR AT GANCIO ROSSO
Because I'm a big fan of Lovecraftian weird fiction and horror fiction, I was curious about Paul Di Filippo and Claudio Chillemi's The Horror at Gancio Rosso and was eager to read it. I was pleasantly surprised when I noticed that the authors had written a pulpish story that was pure entertainment from start to finish and didn't try to be anything else than what it was. It was a fast and enjoyable read.
Before I write more about the contents of this novella and my thoughts about it, I'll mention that this novella has been published by Acheron Books. Acheron Books is an independent Italian publisher of speculative fiction in English language.
The Horror at Gancio Rosso is an interesting and well written Lovecraftian novella that's something a bit different. What's especially interesting about this novella is that Paul Di Filippo and Claudio Chillemi's approach to weird fiction and cosmic horror feels surprisingly fresh, because they fluently blend pulp fiction, detective fiction and weird fiction with cosmic horror. I've noticed that normally authors, who write Lovecraftian weird fiction, tend to write stories with an emphasis on the literary values and beautifully old-fashioned prose or they write modern literary stories, but in this case the authors have chosen to write a pulpish story. In my opinion, this is a good things, because it separates this novella from other similar kind of novellas.
The Horror at Gancio Rosso is a story about Joseph 'Joe' Petrosine. Joe goes to meet commissioner Richard Enright. The commissioner shows Joe a few pictures of mummies in the Capuchin Catacombs in Palermo. Joe learns that somebody has started to hang new bodies that haven't been properly enbalmed. The fresh corpses have been killed in a ritual. Joe finds out that he has to finish a job that started long ago and he must travel to Palermo. The commissioner gives him a book called De Vermis Mysteriis and asks him to study it in order to fathom what's going on.
This is the beginning of an intriguing story that has a charmingly pulpish atmosphere. The story flows effortlessly from the first page to the last page without boring moments.
Joseph 'Joe' Petrosino is an interesting protagonist. He's an unmarried man because of his profession (long working hours and frequent incident of mortal danger would cause stress to a spouse). He also has a bitter past, because he and his whole family were banished from Italy to America.
Alessia Santogiovanni, the sister of the Italian cop Tomasso Santogiovanni, is a fascinating character. She's a beautiful woman who knows quite a lot about occultism and supernatural forces.
Paul Di Filippo and Claudio Chillemi write fluently about Joe's investigations and his feelings about De Vermis Mysteriis and its contents. They pay attention to Joe's investigations, but they don't burden their readers with too many descriptions of police procedures.
There's a charmingly Italian flavour to the story that I found compelling. The authors easily evoke the atmosphere of an age gone by with their descriptions of the places and the happenings. The descriptions of the catacombs and the corpses are atmospheric and delightfully macabre.
The connections to H. P. Lovecraft's well-known "The Horror at Red Hook" are intriguing. I think that everybody who is familiar with Lovecraft's story will find this story interesting, because it features references to Red Hook and detective Thomas Malone who witnessed strange things during his investigations.
Because I enjoyed reading this novella and found it entertaining, I give it four stars on the scale from one to five stars for its entertainment values. It's one of the best novellas of its kind and deserves to be read by fans of entertaining fiction.
If you're looking for a good and entertaining Lovecraftian novella with pulpish elements, The Horror at Gancio Rosso will most likely be of interest to you. It will appeal to readers who enjoy reading horror fiction, weird fiction, detective stories and mystery fiction. It's nice that Paul Di Filippo and Claudio Chillemi have decided to write Lovecraftian fiction in a pulpish way, because the story feels fresh.
My final words are:
Paul Di Filippo and Claudio Chillemi's The Horror at Gancio Rosso is intriguing entertainment. It's an easy to like story with interesting happenings.