A nice response to the tendency Lovecraft had to create main characters or POV characters with little agency or fight in them. While still dealing with the horrors of the Lovecraft mythos, Handerson introduces the sheer stubborn that we hope certain personality types would exhibit when faced with such evil.
In a series of linked short stories, starting with Lovecraft's own Call of Cthulhu and expanding from there, the path of one man's fight against the inexplicable is outlined in painful, tragic, and heroic detail. ( )

The Tales of Inspector Legrasse by CJ Henderson is a newly released title by Mythos Books. As usual Mythos Books advertising is pitiful, as I just sort of stumbled across it. It is a very nice quality trade paperback. At Amazon it is $13.60, eligible for free shipping if you buy $25 worth of books, although with slower delivery. The cover has a handsome noir type painting of Legrasse with a superimposed femme fatale looking type. It is by Ben Fogletto, who was, I think, the artist for Mr. Henderson's occult detectives book. There is an even more noirish sketch of a world weary Legrasse on the frontispiece by Erica Henderson. Alas there is no other interior art by her, which would have been very welcome. Page count is a generous 217. In the back are advertisements for a number of books, including the forthcoming Black Sutra by DeBill (big yawn factor on the cover art) and Unholy Dimensions by Jeffrey Thomas (pretty cool looking cover). The book's contents consist of HPL's "The Call of Cthulhu", the classic which of course introduced us to John Raymond Legrasse, and six additional stories by Mr. Henderson, who brings Inspector Legrasse to life for us. All stories are listed as copyright 2005, which evinces some sloppiness on the part of Mythos Books. For example, "To Cast Out Fear" appeared in Eldritch Blue (was that released in 2003?) and "Patiently Waiting" was in The Occult Detectives of CJ Henderson from 2003. I do not know if the rest of these stories already saw print elsewhere somewhen. The introduction is by Bob Price, and is only mildly annoying.

Of course Mr. Henderson's mythos credentials are impressive and I have certainly read numerous stories of his. Although it is unwise to peg an author, it is safe to say that noir type supernatural detectives are a favored genre of the author, as evidenced by his Teddy London series, his occult detectives book and his Anton Zarnak stories. With such highly honed skills, Henderson's stories almost always deliver the goods. The premise of this book is to flesh out Inspector Legrasse as a character. This is fertile ground for a mythos author. After all, what did HPL provide to us beyond a name? He gave us a sketchy first adventure but HPL just wasn't an action writer or a character writer. He gives us a brief glimpse of the horror in the swamp. The situation was just begging for someone to come fill in the gaps. Thankfully, the talented CJ Henderson picked up the challenge. All of these stories (except, perhaps, the last, "Nothing to Fear but Dust" which benfits from knowing the series background) may be read independently. I am presuming, given the problematic copyright listing, that they were written over a number of years and appeared here and there before until compiled for this collection. Where was I.....? OK, there is an overall arc to the story collection leading up to Legrasse's ultimate confrontation with the Cthulhu cult. Characters introduced in one story will show up in subsequent ones. As Legrasse struggles to make sense of what happened in his first Cthulhoid encounter he becomes more and more detached from the normal course of human affairs. He is a somewhat tragic figure, setting himself to fight monstrous evil but completely out of the public view, unknown and disregarded by the people he is saving. It takes all of his reserves of character to maintain his equilibrium as he finds out more and more about Cthulhu, the Great Old Ones and mankind's place in the universe. But he perseveres, knowing in his heart that humanity is worth preserving, that people of good will must set themselves against this horror at whatever cost, even if it only delays the inevitable. Along the way he makes friends with Anton Zarnak and develops a small circle of devoted followers. All stories are highly crafted and enjoyable in a way different from HPL's magnificent "The Call of Cthulhu". HPL provides the cosmic sweep and Henderson the human dimension. Approach this book in the spirit of the noir types detective stories of the 20s and 30s and you will be very satisfied. Don't look too hard at how a few men can mow down a charging mob of Deep Ones with handguns, or at how sketchy the secondary characters are, or how untrained men, including the elderly, the out of condition and the morbidly obese, can navigate across the terrain of the Himalayas. Such quibbles will only spoil your enjoyment and are beside the point anyway.

So in summary, The Tales of Inspector Legrasse is a fine book, practically self recommending. It will offer many enjoyable hours of reading to any mythos fan. Based on this my next book will be The Occult Detective of CJ Henderson. ( )

**If you haven't read Lovecraft's "Call of Cthulhu," then stop reading this now.***

In this anthology of stories, we once again meet up with Inspector Legrasse, who, in Lovecraft's story, had become involved with the investigation of a cult in the swamps of New Orleans that worshipped Cthulhu. That story is offered as the first in this book; from there on CJ Henderson has brought back Inspector Legrasse who progresses from a New Orleans police inspector to a man with a single focus and a mission: to try to stop evil from taking over the world as we know it. The stories are put in chronological order and you really must read them as such or you will miss Legrasse's story completely.

I love Henderson's Teddy London stories and his Anton Zarnak offerings (and I love the types of stories involving investigators of the paranormal/supernatural in general). I liked all of the stories in this book, with the exception of "To Cast out Fear," which others who reviewed the book seemed to like a lot. It just didn't seem to be in keeping with the tone of his other Zarnak/Legrasse tales. However, that's just my humble opinion, and as I said, others seemed to like it. The rest of the stories, however, were fun, action-filled and a pleasure to read. Very entertaining book -- it is a good addition to my collection. ( )