The first in a new Lovecraftian trilogy, "a frightening Victorian adventure of ancient idols, blood-sacrifice cults, and Elder Gods" ( Hellnotes). 1878—Doctor Archibald Shaw arrives in India with lofty intentions. He wants to make a difference in the world. As a young doctor and new officer in Her Majesty's British army, he wants nothing more than to help the local people while distinguishing himself in Queen Victoria's foreign service. In short order, though, Shaw finds his basic concept of the world turned upside down. It begins with an ugly idol, and an evil from the dawn of time waiting to return to this world. This elder god still sleeps . . . but fitfully, and a cult long thought destroyed has come back to awaken it. They will kill anyone who gets in their way. Everything Shaw once believed true dissolves around him, and he grasps at straws to keep his own sanity—including the desperate friendship of one young orphan boy. Will it be enough to keep him alive? Shaw begins to realize that the fate of all humanity rests in his hands.
