Exclusive interview with Jonathan L. Howard and a review of the first book in his new detective series
Rating: Three Stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
“Macmillan (the leading publishing house) had an elevator pitch about setting a Lovecraftian story in the modern day, and then looked around to see if they were already publishing anyone who might be interested in taking it on,” says Carter and Lovecraft author Jonathan L. Howard. “Carter & Lovecraft is unusual to me because it’s the first time I’ve written a book to spec. Thomas Dunne Books, which is a part of Macmillans, had published two of my Johannes Cabal novels, the former of which in particular [Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute] is very Lovecraftian. The TV rights for Carter & Lovecraft were sold before it was even published. That was very cool.”
Howard modernizes H.P. Lovecraft’s style of writing, the late American author whose works of horror fiction had little recognition during his life, but gained prestige later to such a degree that he is now considered one of the great American writers. You’ll like Carter, the lead character. Originally a tough cop, he’s got more heart than it first seems. His banter with Emily is witty and almost feels British. Howard guides us into what the characters are thinking without losing Carter’s point of view.
After the sudden death of his partner, NYPD homicide detective Daniel Carter leaves the force to become a private investigator. He’s unexpectedly inherited some property in Providence, Rhode Island. He thinks it’s a house and he’ll sell it. On arrival he finds out it’s a rare book store. He meets Emily Lovecraft, who’s related to the man who left the property to Carter and the last known descendant of the famous writer. But then people start dying. Carter has Emily help him. Can her knowledge of H.P. Lovecraft stories help them catch the killer?
“Given that I was working from an elevator pitch, most of which I dispensed with, there wasn’t a lot of material to go on, and not a great deal of time to create the whole thing from very nearly scratch,” says Howard. “Yet here it is, and I am honestly proud of it.”
“The original pitch was very two-fisted and had a descendant of H.P.Lovecraft as a modern day detective who ends up bumping into beasts of the (Lovecraftian fictional universe) Cthulhu Mythos,” says Howard. “As much to his surprise as any one else’s. It sounded like fun, but it had been done before, so I suggested taking it a little bit further away from battling horrors with assault rifles and making it more about the cosmic horror of what does it mean for us all if such things exist? What if that utterly alien horror is only an onion skin’s distance away from us, and it turns out that very thin layer of protection isn’t all it might be? It meant that I could go back to some ideas that I’d considered for The Fear Institute but hadn’t used as they would have been unnecessary for telling that story, use them to create something new that was contemporary and a little more raw than the Cabal novels.”
Howard says he researched a great deal for the book, from history, geography, H.P.Lovecraft’s life and even bureaucracy. That was quite apart from simply trying my best not to make it sound like a book set in the USA and filled with American characters that was written by a Briton. Once I sat down to write, the novel just flowed from my imagination, which was most obliging of it.”
Howard is the author of the Johannes Cabal series, and a number of young adult novels including Katya’s World and Katya’s War. He writes a superhero series called Goon Squad. This is the first in a series of Carter & Lovecraft books. The TV rights for Carter & Lovecraft have been bought by Warner Bros. Television. There’s also an option on the Johannes Cabal novels. Before becoming a published author, Howard was a game designer and writer.
Howard was born in Manchester and now lives near Bristol.
Carter & Lovecraft by Jonathan L. Howard. Hardcover: 320 pages, Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books (October 20, 2015) Language: English, ISBN: 9781250060891 $25.99
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