City of the Shrieking Tomb by Patrick A Rogers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A rural India travelogue becomes a ghost story that turns into a Lovecraftian horror.

A quite decent old-school horror that belongs in Amazing Tales, perfect for all us folks wanting something that FEELS authentically true. The devil is in the details here and the author's real travels across India shows it. From dialogue to truly great descriptions of the countryside and the ancient ruins, I'm always THERE and it was quite fun.

I also enjoyed the deep history of the region and the backstory in general, but let's be real here: exposition through dialogue isn't always the best way to info-dump us. It's better than how the novel starts as an outright scholarly work, (which stops quickly, thank goodness,) but a lot of it slows the pace of the novel.

However, when we get the full-on action, I'm as happy as can be. The prior knowledge gives the supernatural and ghost/demon story some great weight, but I can't say that the way it got there was perfect. Even so, I've read much worse. :)

Its strengths are very strong and the reveals, while rather expected, were satisfying. :) Great for October!

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