Sometimes when I read Lovecraft's short work, I end up thinking that there's a germ of a decent story there... and if someone (not Lovecraft) were to write a story about how an academically-minded person goes bad and builds up a secret network of cultists and child abductors with a supernatural underpinning then I'd want to read it. Here, however, that story is weighted down with racism and waffle and endless historical references that do nothing but contribute to the bloat. I like the cop main character, who somehow moves a little beyond stereotype, and I thoroughly dislike the antagonist Suydam, but then I am meant to and so I'm happy with my dislike there. It's just the rest that consistently smothers it.