Secrets & Sacrifices: A Regency Cthulhu Novel (Call of Cthulhu) – Cath Lauria – Review

Secrets & Sacrifices: A Regency Cthulhu Novel (Call of Cthulhu)

Cath Lauria

Aconyte Books

As I slowly make my way back into the business of book reviews, I want to take a moment to thank the good people at Aconyte Books. I spent several years away from this blog dealing with personal matters that stopped me from doing any real reading, let along reviewing; and yet, despite that, they never gave up on me, and were kind enough to keep sending me review copies in the post without any queries about when I might get around to reviewing them. I can’t describe how welcome those parcels were, acting both as a small but potent morale-booster and reminder of a hobby I enjoyed so much. And now that I’m in something of a better place, I have a stack of books nearly at waist-height that I want to get reading and reviewing – and what better place to begin than with one of the more recent arrivals that caught my eye?

Cath Lauria’s Secrets & Sacrifices caught my eye not only because of the cover art by Larry Rostant – an upper-class lady standing with her back to the reader, staring towards a mansion, while her hands clasp a tattered tome both dubious and occult – but also because of the subtitle: A ‘Regency Cthulhu Novel’. That intrigued me – I’ve often stated in my older reviews that the late 18th and early 19th Century are under-utilised for horror novels, and the Regency period of the early 1810s during the ‘Madness’ of King George III has that mixture of political upheaval and cultural changes that act as a potent background for horror stories. And especially so for tales set in the Call of Cthulhu universe, where such changes can result in strange cults and mysterious, blood-stained going-ons.

Furthermore, the back-cover blurb only drew me further, with tantalising mentions of murder, monsters and manners in Regency England. Our protagonist, Cassandra Wright, has found her life ruined by the accusation of murder against her father – leading to no prospects, no money and a ruined engagement. Determined to reveal the truth, and reluctantly accompanied by her best friend Thomas posing as a new fiancee, Cassandra finds herself caught up in the machinations of both ‘polite society’ and the distinctly impolite society lurking in the shadows. It all sounded like a fantastic set-up, just the sort of thing I needed to read and review to get back into the swing of things, and as a bonus I realised that the author’s name was familiar. Digging back into my old reviews, I realised that Cath Lauria penned several short stories in earlier Aconyte Book anthologies, including The Apprentice in the KeyForge universe anthology Tales from the Crucible, which I found to be one of the best in that collection; and the atmospheric The Darkling Woods in the Call of Cthulhu-set The Devourer Below. As such, I was really looking forward to seeing what horrors would be unleashed in a Regency-era England in the clutches of Cthulhu’s dread tentacles!

‘It had all the air of the most delicious lark, right up until it didn’t‘ might just be one of the best opening lines to a novel that I’ve ever come across: short and simple, yet layered with meanings that reveal themselves as the plot is slowly unfurled. It also perfectly encompasses one of the key themes of the Call of Cthulhu setting, and Lovecraftian fiction in general: communing with the Elder Gods and their powers usually goes very well for someone, until it suddenly – and usually violently – backfires on them. After an opening chapter that outlines some Lovecraftian shenanigans, complete with bloodshed, betrayal and hapless cultists attempting to flee the results of their own foolishness, we’re introduced to Cassandra Wright, our protagonist, who is returning to her hometown of Tarryford after years away, forced into social exile after the sudden and unexpected death of her father and dissolution of her wider family. Superficially, Cassandra has come back to look for employment, but in reality is determined to uncover exactly why her father died, and the truth behind the heinous murder that he was accused of that derailed her comfortable life.

Quickly and efficiently, Cath Lauria sketches out the state of society in Regency England; the social, class and gender pressures that Cassandra is forced to labour under; and the numerous obstacles that remain between her and the truth about her father’s activities. She finds herself unexpectedly aided by her old friend Thomas, who has mysteriously returned to Tarryford at the same time; and in a series of plot developments that would fit perfectly within a Jane Austen novel, finds herself pretending to be engaged to Thomas in order to facilitate her investigations, while struggling with her feelings for him and his obvious attraction to her. That’s already a potent mixture for an enjoyable plot, but Lauria deftly intertwines a simultaneously unsettling and intriguing plot about Revolutionary France and the occult influences in its war with Britain that both increases the tension as well as what is at stake. It’s an incredibly well-written and plotted book that catches the attention immediately; I devoured it in less than two days, and I have to emphasize that I haven’t been able to read even a novella to completion in several years. It’s a deeply impressive accomplishment.

One of the best parts of the novel – and its most surprising – was its scope. Secrets & Sacrifices being based within the Call of Cthulhu setting, I must admit I was expecting nothing more than the usual self-contained adventure found in previous books I’ve read within the setting. I assumed I’d be reading a tale of an individual, or small group of individuals, who would come into contact with Lovecraftian forces, and that the plot would end up as a self-contained story: the characters unable to reveal the true nature of the universe due to death, insanity or being part of the various cults that tend to spring up. Yet – without spoilers – I was genuinely surprised by the latter-half of the novel and how much Cath Lauria integrated the conspiracy into wider society, and the resulting chilling implications. I can only hope that Aconyte give her a chance to write a sequel so that we might see how things play out.

Secrets & Sacrifices is not only one of the best Call of Cthulhu novels I’ve read in a very long time, I would go so far as to say it’s a masterful piece of Lovecraftian horror that demonstrates the direction that the genre should be heading. Cath Lauria has composed a story that not only makes full use of the Call of Cthulhu setting, but also stands out as a romance-horror novel that can easily be read without having to have a detailed knowledge of Lovecraft or Cthulhu. It’s an engaging blend of Lovecraft and Austen that results in a fast-paced, chilling and thoroughly enjoyable story, and I cannot wait to see what comes next – both in terms of a sequel, and anything else Cath Lauria might write.