Reanimatrix

An obsessed detective on the trail on a murdered young woman finds more than he bargained for in this tale of hard-boiled cosmic horror, an inventive mash-up of the pulp detective story and Lovecraftian terror.

Some say the war drove Robert Peaslee mad. Others suggest that given what happened to his father, madness was inevitable. He’s spent years trying to forget the monsters that haunt his dreams, but now has returned to witch-haunted Arkham to do the only job that he’s qualified for, handling the crimes other cops would prefer to never talk about. He’s the hero Arkham doesn’t even know it has.

Megan Halsey is dead, her body missing. She might have been one of the richest young women in Arkham, but all that money couldn’t make her happy. Word on the street is that her mother split a long time ago, and Megan had spent a lot of her money trying to find her.

Peaslee soon becomes obsessed with the murdered Megan. Retracing the steps of her own investigation, traveling from Arkham to Dunwich, and even to the outskirts of Innsmouth, he will learn more about Megan and Arkham than he should, and discover things about himself that he’d tried to bury.

It’s 1928, and in the Miskatonic River Valley, women give birth to monsters and gods walk the hills. Robert Peaslee will soon learn the hard way that some things are better left undead.

Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

Pete Rawlik has been active in all things Lovecraftian since his father read him “The Rats in the Walls” when he was a child as a bedtime story. For more than two decades he has run Dead Ink, selling rare and unusual books. Rawlik’s fiction has appeared in numerous magazine and anthologies. His two novels, Reanimators and The Weird Company, were both published by Night Shade Books.

“Rawlik takes the epistolary form through turns alternately weird, witty, and sexy in this tale of abomination and obsession, giving readers a lively romp through Lovecraft country that will leave fans of the genre hungry for more. Even better, Megan Halsey-Griffith is the anti-heroine you don't want to just read about—you want to be.”
—Wendy N. Wagner, author of Starspawn and Skinwalkers

“Creating original work that pays homage to the classics without sliding into slavish imitation is a tightrope act, and one that Pete Rawlik pulls off with aplomb in Reanimatrix. The result is a richly inventive, Wold Newton-ish world in which Lovecraft’s creations rub shoulders with figures from history, fiction, and beyond. It’s a place where Dr. Jekyll, Dr. Moreau, and My Fair Lady’s Professor Henry Higgins can collaborate to study the ‘Color Out of Space,’ and really, what more could you ask for?”
—Orrin Grey, author of Painted Monsters & Other Strange Beasts

“Rawlik takes readers on a kaleidoscopic terror ride . . . Lovecraft connoisseurs will find much to love in this frequently gruesome and, at times, quite racy tale.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Blew even my vague early expectations away . . . It's fun, it's sly, it's clever. I was reminded of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.”
—The Horror Fiction Review

“I loved the detective noir style and the Lovecraftian horror element of this book.”
—San Francisco Book Review

“Reanimatrix is a genre-blending thrill ride. . . Rawlik does a wonderful job of grabbing you and immersing you into his world. It's a true pleasure to read.”
—The Qwillery

“A satisfying mystery told in a perfect 1920s hardboiled narrative voice and style with just the right amount of Lovecraftian-inspired chills to keep horror fans interested. Especially fun is how Rawlik seamlessly works famous doctors from horror fiction’s past [eg, Dr. Frankenstein, Dr. Moreau, Dr. Jekyll] into the plot.”
—RA For All

“It is safe to say that at this point, Pete Rawlik knows the world of Lovecraft better than Lovecraft himself . . . Reanimatrix takes Lovecraft and places him squarely in the world of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett . . . It is Rawlik’s most mature work to date, alternately gory and salacious but still letting the story set the pace.”
—Hellnotes, reviewed by David Goudsward