Have you always wanted to read a Lovecraftian version of the Lizzie Borden axe murder story? Me, neither. That is, until I heard about this book a few years ago.
Cherie Priest's Maplecroft might appeal equally to true crime fans and fans of Lovecraftian cosmic horror. I'm definitely more in the second group. I'm not judgmental about it, but personally true crime sometimes skeeves me out, like I'm supposed to be entertained by other people's real life misery. I don't know the Lizzie Borden story extremely well, but I could follow this novel just fine. You mileage may vary depending on how much you love true crime in general and Lizzie Borden in particular.
When it comes to Lovecraftian glimpses behind the veil of the world as we believe it to be, on the other hand, I'm totally on board. There are plenty of eldritch horrors here. There's even a professor from Miskatonic University if you're not sure Priest has Lovecraft and his particular brand of weird fiction in mind. Luckily, Priest doesn't write like Lovecraft. I have a bizarre love of Lovecraft's eccentric prose, but nobody else can get away with that and I'm glad Priest didn't try. Her style is modern and engaging even though she preserves just enough of a 19th century style to allow the reader believe the journal entires and letters could have been written in the 1890's.
A bonus fact: Priest earned an MA in Rhetoric and Professional Writing from the university where I currently teach. Small, weird world!
So what about the plot? We meet Lizzie and her sister Emma after the famous murders. They never leave the house, having been ostracized by the townsfolk even though Lizzie was found not guilty. Their only human contact is Emma's doctor, Dr. Seabury. We slowly find out what did happen surrounding the death of Lizzie and Emma's father and step-mother.
Without giving any spoilers, I'll just say that this is where things deviate the most from the true crime story and get really good (and by "good" I mean "weird"). It also turns out that Emma (under a male pseudonym) has been corresponding with a professor at Miskatonic University about strange new creatures found in the sea (Lovecraft fans may be reminded of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth"). There's also an actress who turns out to be Lizzie's lover in addition to a mysterious inspector and a few others. It's fun to see how all of these characters come together.
A lot of the fun of this novel comes from the Lovecraftian bits, but it's also always a bit thrilling whenever Lizzie picks up her axe. Things do get a bit convoluted toward the end (there's at least one facet of the plot that made no sense to me), but for the most part this is a really fun ride.
It is mostly fun, and not necessarily all that deep (except maybe for some Deep Ones). One or two of the characters discuss their atheism. This may be a nod to Lovecraft's personal atheism, a fact about him that doesn't get much play in fiction inspired by his work.
While strictly speaking "atheism" is perfectly compatible with the supernatural (see: many forms of Buddhism), Priest picks up on a facet of Lovecraft's mythos that's usually ignored: there's nothing supernatural about it. It's beyond our understanding of nature, sure, but the eldritch horrors are merely unknown (or unfathomable) by us. Priest does a lot to make the reader aware that the creatures in the novel are biological. Weird, definitely, but biological nonetheless. All of which goes to help make my point that Lovecraft really wrote a type of weird science fiction, not supernatural horror per se. (A lot of this, of course, revolves around how one defines "natural" and "supernatural," a proper discussion of which lies somewhere beyond this humble book review).
So, there are meditations on the weirdness of reality and our inability to know it completely if you care to have them, but mostly Maplecroft is an axe-wielding, monster-slaying, history-bending good time.
See also my Goodreads review.
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