The Fuller Memorandum by Charlie Stross

Do you know who Cthulhu is? Do you know what Chthonic means - or even how to pronounce it? If you do then this is a book you'll love. If you don't? Well, if you like dark crime and horror mysteries then this will also work for you.

This is one of Stross' laundry books, the laundry being the UK Government's agency that deals with the supernatural. Except in this world the supernatural has been reading H.P.Lovecraft zealously and then applying themselves to making it real a little too hard.

So it inhabits the same world as 'John Dies At The End' but operates in a very different way. JDATE was a slacker novel, mad as its subject matter. Stross approaches unspeakable horrors in a clinical, methodical way - in fact just the way his civil servant characters would want the story told I expect. It's very British in its sentiment and works hard to make the madness of multi-dimensional madness have a strong sense of its own integrity. What's so charming about its construction is you feel as if the world will be ok because if we're just extremely reasonable in that British way then everyone else will stop, feeling a bit embarrassed, and return to the nether dimension they invaded from. It feels a bit like Heartbeat meets the Exorcist. He can be too self-consciously hip and knowing, which drags you out of the story by the scruff of the neck and is something I could do without.

The reason I found the self-consciousness so annoying is that Stross writes this book with a gripping pace that pulls you through some superb set pieces, gruesome horror and nicely choreographed relationships. Hands up - it's pulp, but it's at the top of its game and I couldn't put it down.

There are other Laundry books and I will be searching them out - I guess that's a definite recommendation.