Lovecraftian detective noir is such a cool idea.PI John Persons has a new client, an 11-year old boy with the stink of eldritch horror on him. Persons can tell, he's very familiar with eldritch horrors, being one himself. The boy wants him to kill his step-father who is the monster in question; abusive physically, mentally and ultimately, supernaturally. There's all the usual tropes of detective noir, particularly including the apparently innocent who are more than they appear. And of course all...

I was really intrigued by the premise of this story. It started out fairly well and even maintained a good pace, but I just didn't enjoy it much. I felt that important details of the makeup of these creatures and the environment weren't fully explained, and I often found myself not following what was going on. This is a very short story, and went back several times to reread certain sections, assuming I overlooked certain things, but to no avail. The characters were interesting, most notably Joh...

Khaw's name pops up every now and then, and I've generally avoided her books as they seem to be firmly in the young/new adult genre. However, when Tor offered Khaw's Lovecraftian detective novella as a freebie, I was intrigued. Luckily Nataliya and David helped me capitalize on the momentum with a buddy read.Some authors can do short stories and novellas. They know how to make a tight little plot arc while fleshing out the detail just enough to make us feel full while hinting at lands beyond the...

Lovecraftian horror gumshoe noir set in contemporary London. As you do. I enjoyed this a lot, unsurprisingly. Bristling with anger and violence and gory details and a sense of lurking horror, both cosmic and domestic. I felt there could have been a lot more made of it, as the core plot of a full length novel, but there's a sequel so it looks like the author is planning to expand the world. Fabulous cover.

An unconventional noir novella with the distinct flavor of Mieville and Lovecraft, and a dash of hashtag Elder Gods mythos thrown in. Entertaining if a bit brief, and ecstatic if a bit forced, it is nonetheless a daring mishmash of fun otherworldly ideas.

While I enjoyed this book, I think I would have enjoyed it better had it been a full length novel. All the time I was reading it I kept thinking I had missed reading the first book and since there isn't one, I can only believe I needed more information to make the story work for me. John Persons is a private investigator with a secret, he not only hunts monsters, he is one himself. So in other word, John Persons really isn't a person at all. One day he is approached by a young boy who wants him

I think I can read this kind of fiction forever. Like, literally 78 million years in the future, as an immortal intellectual bug, I will be reading this fiction. To me, Lovecraftian horror is tops. Add a very solid Noir to it, a big of crunching bone and eyes everywhere, a case to solve, and I'm in heaven. Or some outer dimensional equivalent made of ice and regret and nostalgia.Hardbitten PI meets tentacled horrors. Of course, he is one, too. :)Highly recommended.

With Hammers on Bone, Cassandra Khaw gives an old-school PI story a cool Lovecraftian update. There's plenty of old-school gumshoe narration (although the story is firmly present-day), along with a heaping dose of ancient gods and gritty mysticism. If this turns out to be the first in a series it is one I'll happily return to.PI Joe Persons takes on what should be a simple job from an eleven-year-old client: kill the boy's abusive step-father, McKinsey. The appropriately-named Persons (you'll fi...

When a kid tries to hire John Persons to kill his stepfather, the private investigator is intrigued. Persons quickly determines the stepfather isn't of this earth. Sometimes, it takes a monster to kill a monster...This was a Netgalley find. The combination of noir and Lovecraftian horror is a hard one for me to pass up so I jumped on this one straight away.John Persons is a private investigator in London and not entirely as he seems to be. When young Abel shows up, Persons is intrigued and quick...

2.5 starsI like purple prose as much as the next person but this was too much for me to handle. The writing and I did not gel, which was unfortunate because the premise is so darn compelling.

Originally reviewed at Bookwraiths.Hammers on Bone is set in present day London and stars a mysterious detective, a creepy kid, and hidden horrors. Powerful, dark and filled with more than a few twists, this is a novella sure to excite fans of Lovecraftian noir.Following along behind a loner named John Persons, readers are immediately sucked into the story when a young boy tries to hire this private eye to kill his stepfather, McKinsey. The kid explaining that some evil presence has infected McK...

“Please. You’re the only one who can help.”“What makes you say that?”“Because you’re a monster too.” This novella was a lovely surprise, although the word ‘lovely’ does in no way describe this dark tale. No, this is a horror story that takes the shape of detective fiction, and in particular that of a film noir. We have a private investigator, lone figure with hidden depths, who takes on a desperate job, that turns to be a lot more than he expected. Add to this that the horror aspect is Lovecraft...

Fun modern Lovecraftian horror story, inconsistently infused with noir style - Khaw seemed to regularly drop/forget it.Not a huge pageturner, but entertaining enough.

Actual rating 4.5/5 stars. This is the first instalment in the Persons Non Grata series.PI John Persons' latest client is a ten-year-old boy and the contract he has been assigned is the murder of the boy's stepfather. As he begins to discover who his target really is, he also begins to learn the truth about the monster that lurks inside of him - both figuratively and literally.This short novella proved to contain a seamless blend of hard-boiled crime and Lovecraftian horror. The former isn't usu...

“I’d gotten into the detective business to escape the deepwater blues, from the songs that squirm in your veins like worms.” I’m not a big fan of describing things as Lovecraftian - I don’t care for the guy himself, I prefer tentacles in the form of calamari, and I can live without the overwritten language just fine. But like it or not, this story is very much Lovecraftian in tone and feeling — combined with the tobacco smoke-filled atmosphere of Mickey Spillane’s hard-boiled noir detective s

Interesting mix of elder gods and hardboiled/noir elements with some really evocative writingThe noise becomes a whisper, a hiss, a celebration, a roar, a black surf breaking on the glaciers of an old, decaying world. It sutures itself into syllables, strings of sounds that could almost be called words if you're feeling generous.Instead, he extends his tongue, reveals a country of sigils delicately etched onto the red muscle. I don't recognize the language, but their greasy luminance is familiar...

Imagine if you will that this: meets this: And yes, Elder Gods damn it, that is as amazing as it sounds. Lovecraftian Horror meets noir. There endeth the review....Okay, okay, so I will say a little more. This is a beautifully written book. Now, when I say beautiful, I don't mean the finest prose of all time, I mean that Khaw captures the dialogue of classic noir better than any author I've seen writing past the 1930s. Take for example when our narrator meets his client (a young boy):"Usually, i...

I'm a sucker for noir crossover stuff. Using the pulp fiction detective form to tell horror, SF, and fantasy stories draws me in almost immediately. This is a trip into Lovecraft territory courtesy of a Hammett-esque PI who's actually an otherworldly monster possessing the body of a dead Londoner (I think; it's a little vague). He's all "dame" this and "kid" that, except in this case the "dame" is Shub-Niggurath and the "kid" isn't what he claims to be, either. I enjoyed almost everything about

The thing about Private Eyes is they have it easy. Collar up, hat down, mean street beneath their feet and they’re a fictional needle in a fictional groove. The perfect alpha predator protagonist able to do the best they can for the worst of reasons and come out the other side battered, crumpled but alive. And, somehow, looking cooler.John Persons is a PI. He’s got the patter, he’s got the outfit and he’s got the mindset.But John Persons has a problem. Two actually. The first is that his true na...

Received to review via NetgalleyHammers on Bone is a fun novella which blends both noir detective fiction and something that looks to me like the Cthulhu mythos, though I’m not very versed in the latter. It drips with cliches in a way that works, because the main character is a man out of time — straight from hard-boiled detective fiction, despite the modern setting. The story draws you on with the mystery of what exactly John Persons is. It’s apparent from the beginning that he’s a monster, as