Whoo-boy. For the record, I finished this book back on the 7th of JUNE, so my “behind-ness” is reaching truly amazing levels.
Pizzolato, of course, is the genius behind HBO’s True Detective, so when I realized he’d written a novel I had it on my Kindle in about 2 seconds.
It’s solid, though not as cleanly assembled as the (much more ambitious) True Detective. Our hero is dirtier than either of TD’s cops, and less given to philosophical ravings; our bad guys are less gothic and menacing. There’s an entire lack of backwoods murdering goons, and at no point do we encounter nubile young girls wearing antlers in their final repose. But it’s still solid, and there’s more than a little here that rhymes, thematically, with the HBO show; the biggest is the presence of a split narrative, taking place in two distinct timeframes but linked by a single character — who, inevitably, makes little men out of beer cans.
Definitely worth your time if you loved the show — significantly moreso than The King in Yellow.
Interesting. I’m watching True Detective right now and have two episodes left, so no fuckin’ spoilers. The Yellow King (properly the King In Yellow)/Carcosa angle seems to be less than completely important to the plot, though it does scratch my geek instincts. If you want to go full Carcosa, I suggest checking abebooks.com or a similar place to find the first in a very fine series of Cthulhu Mythos stuff, organized (mostly) by either god or author. #1 is The Hastur Cycle; Hastur was extrapolated by later writers than Lovecraft from Chambers’ King in Yellow. Carcosa is supposedly its home, though that name first appears in an Ambrose Bierce story that has nothing remotely Lovecraftian. The editor of Hastur Cycle is Robert M. Price, who writes intros and edits the series, and his intros are quite excellent. The series was published by Chaosium, which did the original Call of Cthulhu RPG; don’t know if they’re still in business. But you should be able to find all the cosmic horror you want on the used sites. Bon appetit! And, damn, Harrelson and McConaughey are good.