''Sherlock Holmes and the Sussex Sea-Devils'' is a

mystery novel Mystery is a fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a credible motive and a re ...

James Lovegrove James M. H. Lovegrove (born 1965) is a British writer of speculative fiction. Early life Lovegrove was educated at Radley College, Oxfordshire, and was one of the subjects of a 1979 BBC television series, ''Public School''. A follow-up progr ...

. It is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche that involves

H. P. Lovecraft Howard Phillips Lovecraft (, ; August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer of Weird fiction, weird, Science fiction, science, fantasy, and horror fiction. He is best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos. Born in Provi ...

Cthulhu Mythos The Cthulhu Mythos is a mythopoeia and a shared fictional universe, originating in the works of American Horror fiction, horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. The term was coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent and protégé of Lovecraft, t ...

. It is the third book in '' The Cthulhu Casebooks'' series following ''

Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows ''Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows'' is a mystery novel by James Lovegrove. It is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche that involves H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. It is the first book in the '' Cthulhu Casebooks'' series. The second novel, '' ...

'' and '' Sherlock Holmes and the Miskatonic Monstrosities''.

Plot

Having retired to a farm near

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...

, Sherlock Holmes is forced back into action to investigate the death of his brother Mycroft. Detecting the hand of R’luhlloig, Holmes and Watson are drawn into a battle that leads to R’lyeh, the Pacific island dwelling place of

Cthulhu Cthulhu is a fictional cosmic entity created by writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was introduced in his short story "The Call of Cthulhu", published by the American pulp magazine ''Weird Tales'' in 1928. Considered a Great Old One within the pantheon ...

Reception

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' said "Lovegrove is a grandmaster of the Sherlock Holmes homage, and no slouch when it comes to describing Lovecraftian horrors: Sherlock Holmes and the Sussex Sea-Devils is thoroughly compelling." Mark Yon of SFFWorld said "''Sherlock Holmes and the Sussex Sea-Devils'' is the culmination of this series and if you’ve liked the previous two novels you’ll like this one. Overall, the series has been a pleasant surprise, and is recommended." ''

Starburst MicroPro International Corporation was an American software company founded in 1978 in San Rafael, California. They are best known as the publisher of WordStar, a popular early word processor for personal computers. History Founding and early su ...

'' called the series "they are enjoyably suspenseful, with the mystery such as it is being played out with fervent, well-paced writing." and said of ''Sea-Devils'' "Allow your mind to wander and you may well enjoy this novel for the fun story it is." Peter Meinertzhagen of Sublime Horror said "The final book in James Lovegrove’s ''The Cthulhu Casebooks'' triptych of Holmes & Lovecraft mash-ups brings the series to a grand betentacled finale and leaves you wondering why the collision of these two worlds works so well... It simply wishes to make you smile and, for that, it deserves a recommendation." Sam Tyler in SFBook Reviews wrote "...this is a very well written and entertaining novel that pays homage to the legacy of two great creations and embarrasses neither."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherlock Holmes the Sussex Sea-Devils 2018 British novels Sherlock Holmes novels Sherlock Holmes pastiches Novels set in England Crossover novels