Quest for Cthulhu — August Derleth

Brilliantly imagined by the late H. P. Lovecraft, the mythical cycle of Cthulhu is expanded and enriched in this one-volume edition of tales that only August Derleth, Lovecraft's friend and collaborator, could have produced. With the marvelously inventive novel The Trail of Cthulhu and the six remarkable stories of mythic horror included in The Mask of Cthulhu, Derleth maps the strange destinies intertwined in the quest for the ancient god Cthulhu. Under the spell of Lovecraft's imagination, Derleth weaves new horrors like the hideous eldrich deity Yog-Sothoth lurking in the New England wood of "The Whippoorwills in the Hills" and the bodiless Lloigor who breaks an occult contract to terrifying effect in "The Sandwin Compact." And in "The Seal of R'lyeh," the dreadful link between the Massachusetts town of Innsmouth and the servants of the formidable Cthulhu is coded. With narrative threads from Lovecraft's lore and some chilling mythic strands of its own, The Trail of Cthulhu tracks Dr. Laban Shrewsbury as he investigates the unspeakable secrets of the Ancient Ones. Terror mounts as he journeys from Massachusetts and halfway around an occult world to arrive finally at the drowned city of R'lyeh, where Cthulhu waits dreaming.