"Daniel Carter used to be a homicide detective, but his last case -- the hunt for a serial killer -- went wrong in strange ways and soured the job for him. Now he's a private investigator trying to live a quiet life. Strangeness, however, has not finished with him. First he inherits a bookstore in Providence from someone he's never heard of, along with an indignant bookseller who doesn't want a new boss. She's Emily Lovecraft, the last known descendant of H.P. Lovecraft, the writer from Providence who told tales of the Great Old Ones and the Elder Gods, creatures and entities beyond the understanding of man. Then people start dying in impossible ways, and while Carter doesn't want to be involved, but he's beginning to suspect that someone else wants him to be. As he reluctantly investigates, he discovers that Lovecraft's tales were more than just fiction, and he must accept another unexpected, and far more unwanted inheritance"--;The killer in Red Hook -- The doom that came to Suydam -- Facts concerning the late Alfred Hill -- Providence -- The outsider -- The dreams in the Book House -- Dan, the detective -- The horror in the parking lot -- The crime of the century -- The sorcery of statistics -- The terrible young man -- The street -- The nameless city -- Ad oblivione -- A reminiscence of Bertrand Russell -- Cool air -- The pistol in the house -- The shadow over Providence -- Out of the aeons -- The purple key -- What the moon brings -- In the vault -- The whisperer in darkness -- Alienation -- The think and the doorstep -- The shunned house -- The very odd folk -- The hunted in the dark -- Medusa's coil -- The night ocean -- From beyond -- The strange high house in the mist.