The Trail of Cthulhu is a horror novel by August Derleth, long-time friend and correspondent of H. P. Lovecraft. Although published in 1962, the book is actually a collection of interconnected short stories that were originally published in the '40s and '50s.
As the title suggests, the book is set within the Cthulhu Mythos. It tells the story of Laban Shrewsbury. Shrewsbury, a professor at Miskatonik University, vanished one night, only to return to campus 10 years later. Upon his return, his research has turned to the arcane. Specifically, he began looking for a common link among all ancient folklores and cults, a trail as one of his colleagues puts it.
As the book unfolds, it becomes clear that the ultimate goal of this trail is to find the Black Island and kill Cthulhu once and for all. Unfortunately, Shrewsbury finds he can't do it alone and enlists the help of brave, if ill-prepared, would-be heroes
As this is based on Lovecraft's work, Shrewsbury's meddling doesn't go unnoticed and he and his friends find themselves on the run from some very pissed-off cultists.
Like many of Derleth's Lovecraftian stories, this work is rather controversial due to his reimagining of Lovecraft's Ancient Ones as actually being evil as opposed to being beyond good and evil. Still, it—much like Derleth himself—is certainly not without fans.
Not to be confused with the Lovecraft RPG Trail of Cthulhu.
This book contains examples of:
- All Myths Are True: All ancient myths are directly inspired by mankind's encounters with the Ancient Ones. Also, all of Lovecraft's stories are true.
- Back for the Finale: All the supporting protagonists, who were each basically Put on a Bus to make room for the next one, show up in The Black Island.
- Bittersweet Ending: On one hand, R'lyeh being nuked has pushed back the end of the world by several years, some of the doors to R'lyeh appear to have been destroyed and the leaders of the Salapunco and Innsmouth cults have been killed. On the other hand, Cthulhu is still alive and will eventually return, it's possible that the doors may have survived after all, Horvath is revealed to be a Deep One and is having trouble suppressing the urge to join his brethren and the cults still exist and have begun killing those involved in the attack on R'lyeh, starting with Abel.
- City with No Name: A part of the fourth chapter is set in the "Nameless City" (from the eponymous H. P. Lovecraft short story).
- Continuity Nod: The Shadow Over Innsmouth and The Call of Cthulhu are referenced numerous times, and "The Gorge Beyond Salapunco" also briefly references The Whisperer in Darkness in the papers belonging to Boyd's grandfather.
- Cosmic Horror Story: Starts out as this, but quickly turns into more of Lovecraft Lite only to go right back to Cosmic Horror Story at the very end.
- Dead Man Writing: Set up by the fact that each of the main characters wrote their portion of the story before disappearing, but subverted. All of them all still alive but are off the grid fighting Cthulhu, except for Horvath, who left to join the Deep Ones.
- Decoy Protagonist: In the first chapter, Andrew Phelan is obviously the main character, then it turns out that each chapter has its own protagonist
- Demoted to Extra: Every character other than Shrewsbury and Horvath (who was introduced too late into the story to have a chance to be demoted).
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Shrewsbury's goal. It works. However, it's implied that this victory is only temporary.
- In fact, most of the stories have this in one way or another. In "The House on Curwen Street", Shrewsbury and Phelan appear to have taken out something when they blow up the R'lyeh door, although what isn't clear. In "The Watcher from the Sky", Phelan and Abel manage to trap and kill Ahab Marsh, a fully-evolved Deep One who as such is almost impossible to kill by normal means. In "The Gorge Beyond Salapunco", Boyd at the very least wounds and drives off the inhuman leader of the Salapunco cult, and very possibly kills him. And of course, at the climax of "The Black Island" Cthulhu is nuked just as he emerged from R'lyeh. While he almost certainly survived, he is injured and driven back below the sea for the time being.
- Eldritch Abomination: A given, as this is a Cthulhu Mythos story. Cthulhu and his servitors are the only ones to appear, but Hastur, Shub-Niggurath and others are mentioned.
- Enemy Civil War: The Great Old Ones are mentioned several times to be in conflict with one another, which enables the protagonists to fight against Cthulhu by summoning servitors of rival Great Old Ones to attack his servants.
- Enemy Mine: Shewsbury, a lifelong enemy of the Great Old Ones, and Hastur, a Great Old One, are both working together against Cthulhu.
- Glasses Pull: Done by Shrewsbury near the end of "The House on Curwen Street", which leads to a pretty freaky reveal: he has no eyes.
- Grand Finale: The Black Island. Remember, this was originally a series of short stories, so the final showdown was really the end of a series spanning at least 10 years rather than the end of a single book.
- He Knows Too Much: Standard practice for the followers of Cthulhu, who have killed off a number of archaeologists and the like who got too close to the truth. H. P. Lovecraft himself may have been among these victims, and Abel is eventually killed by the cult for this reason.
- Internal Reveal:
- Readers familiar with the mythos already know the secret of Innsmouth, which a large part of both "The Watcher from the Sky" and "The Black Island" is spent investigating.
- The existence of the Old Ones and Shrewsbury's mission to hunt Cthulhu is revealed multiple times in turn to the protagonist of each story.
- Lovecraft Country: "The House on Curwen Street" and "The Watcher from the Sky" take place in Lovecraft's towns of Arkham and Innsmouth.
- Lovecraft Lite: Subverted in the epilogue, which goes out on a very bleak note that falls more under Cosmic Horror Story than it does this.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Four of the six protagonists have professions relatives to writer. Shrewsbury, Clairborne Boyd, and Horvath Blayne are scientists focused on humanities (the former about occultism, the two latter about ethnology), Nayland Colum is a novellist. Indirectly, Andrew Phelan have been hired by Shrewsbury because he has some skills in a secretary job, among other things. The less relevant protagonist to this trope is Abel Keane, who is a theology student aiming to become a priest.
- Necromancer: Non evil example. Shrewsbury manages to shortly reanimate Abdul Alhazred corpses in order to ask him a few questions, including: "where can I find an original scroll of your Necronomicon?" and "where is R'lyeh?".
- Never Found the Body: Dr. Shrewsbury is presumed dead near the end of "The House on Curwen Street" when his house is destroyed by fire, but Phelan believes he escaped as no human remains were found in the rubble. He's right.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Nice job reawakening Hovarth's interest in his family's past, Shrewsbury.
- No One Could Survive That!: During the finale, said to Shrewsbury by the American general while ordering the nuking of R'lyeh.
- Nuke 'em: The Black Island has the US Navy dropping a nuke on R'lyeh. It's strongly hinted at the end that the cult is still active.
- Opaque Lenses: Shrewsbury wears them, to conceal his lack of eyes.
- Perspective Flip: The last chapter has a scene during which Horvath Blayne reads a diary and letters describing The Shadow over Innsmouth events and their aftermath through the eyes of an Innsmouth inhabitant. Who is Horvath's grandfather.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Subverted near the end where it turns out that the American military has become involved with Shrewsbury's research
- The Reveal: Professor Shrewsbury has no eyes.
- Save the World: Shrewsbury's ultimate goal, to save the world from the Great Old Ones by destroying Cthulhu.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: In the end, it's arguable that all Shrewsbury accomplished was to merely prolong the inevitable and get Abel killed in the process...and set Hovath on the road to becoming a villain (or at least a mook)...meaning that Derleth's themes might have more in common with Lovecraft's after all. That said, the end of the world was pushed back several years, the leaders of the Salapunco and Innsmouth cults were killed and some of the doors to R'lyeh may have been destroyed, so it could be a subversion.
- Supporting Protagonist: Every chapter has one. Dr. Shrewsbury is the actual hero of the whole book
- Token Evil Teammate: Horvath initially appears to be just as heroic as the others, but is revealed in the epilogue to be a Deep One.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Like in its original appearance, Innsmouth is portrayed this way, with the dark secret being the same as in that story.
