In two novellas, Tony LaMalfa has weaved a rich tapestry of Lovecraftian horror that evokes the shade of the Master himself. “The Face on the Floor” explores the fate of the young Jonathan Danforth’s tortured involvement with Andre Oswald, a fellow student at Miskatonic University whose quest to read the Necronomicon engulfs Danforth in a baffling web of horror and tragedy. “If Only Skin Deep” takes us to New Zealand, where the young scholar Myriam Delacroix investigates a remote tribe that seems to have anomalous relations with nameless entities from the sea. The revelation Myriam experiences at the end of an enigmatic ceremony is soul-shattering.