The Secret Life of H.P. Lovecraft by W.J. Renehan

A ' Dublin University man born in a Georgian villa near Phoenix Park', he is said to have 'the Celt's far vision of weird and hidden things, but the logician's quick eye for the outwardly unconvincing. The tunnels and chambers uncovered in the raids are filled in and cemented, though, as Malone recounts, the threat in Red Hook subtly re-emerges.Ĭharacters Thomas Malone An Irish-born New York police detective, 'detailed to the Butler Street station in Brooklyn' before going on indefinite medical leave. Malone is found in the basement of Suydam's flat, which has caved in inexplicably above him, killing everyone else inside. He witnesses human sacrifices and a ritual that reanimates Suydam's corpse. In the basement, he comes across a door that breaks open and sucks him inside, revealing a hellish landscape. Malone enters Suydam's flat to see what he can find. Later, some strange men from another ship come on board and lay claim to Suydam's body. Aboard, a scream is heard and, when the crew enter Suydam's stateroom, they find him and his wife dead, with claw-marks on his wife's body. A police raid, involving Malone, uncovers nothing useful from Suydam's Red Hook flat save a few strange inscriptions.Īfter Suydam's wedding, he and his bride leave on a ship. News arrives of his engagement to a well-to-do woman, while, at the same time, there is an increase in local kidnappings. Known as a shabby recluse, he is seen around town looking younger and more radiant. The 'case of Robert Suydam' is then told to be the driving force behind Malone's federally ordered involvement at Red Hook. Back-tracking to where it all began, the Brooklyn waterfront slum Red Hook is described in detail, with its gangs and crime, and hinting at an occult underbelly. The story begins with Detective Malone describing an on-duty incident in Red Hook, Brooklyn, that gave him a phobia of large buildings. 'Red Hook' was thus first published in the January 1927 issue of Weird Tales. He did not get such a sale, and had to fall back on Weird Tales. By having an unusually proactive Irish New York police detective as his protagonist, he hoped for a swift sale to a detective pulp, which would have opened up a new market other than his usual Weird Tales magazine. Living in poverty in the slum of Red Hook at the time of writing, Lovecraft was at this time urgently attempting to widen his markets in the pulp magazines. Although the story depicts a sinister cult, this cult offers a conventionally occult devil-worshipping threat, rather than the cosmic threat depicted in his later work. 'Red Hook' is a transitional tale, situated between the author's earlier work and the later Cthulhu Mythos. ' The Horror at Red Hook' is a short story by American writer H. Title page of 'The Horror at Red Hook' as it appeared in Weird Tales, January 1927.

The Secret Life of H.P. Lovecraft by W.J. Renehan