The Arcanum

The Arcanum is an occult thriller centered on historical personalities, and set in New York City, 1919. The team of protagonists are brought out of retirement following the assassination of the adept who had first organized them. The heroes themselves are portrayed with varying levels of fidelity to historical detail: Harry Houdini, Arthur Conan Doyle, Marie Laveau, and H.P. Lovecraft.

Of the four, Lovecraft gets the roughest handling from author Wheeler: the rationalist skeptic is represented as a credulous "demonologist." This portrayal is in contrast with real HPL, who expressed his perspective in a letter to Robert E. Howard: "All I say is that I think it is damned unlikely that anything like a central cosmic will, a spirit world, show more or an eternal survival of personality exist. They are the most preposterous and unjustified of all the guesses which can be made about the universe, and I am not enough of a hair-splitter to pretend that I don't regard them as arrant and negligible moonshine. In theory I am an agnostic, but pending the appearance of radical evidence I must be classed, practically and provisionally, as an atheist." (1932) Or his blunt remark in even earlier correspondence: "The Judaeo-Christian mythology is NOT TRUE."

In fact, the occultism of The Arcanum is very non-Lovecraftian; it is centered on a quasi-Biblical sort of Nephilim mythology of the sort often found in comic books or horror movies. Add a dash of Ghostbusters: the "Eltdown Shard" contraption that serves as a convenient demon-detector operated by HPL is made of steampunk fail: it is steam-powered and transistorized, and spits out little Matrix-like glyphs and symbols. The demons and angels which are so central to the story are haplessly corporeal creatures with no real whiff of externality about them.

Naturally, a tale of the occult set in 1919 New York includes a few appearances by Aleister Crowley. The Beast isn't exactly treated sympathetically, but he's not really a cardinal villain either. To the extent that he is relevant, he actually helps the heroes. Wheeler makes Crowley tremendously intelligent and inscrutable, and the only misplaced details are the repetitive description of his "bulging eyes," and people addressing him familiarly as "Aleister" (rather than "AC").

This book is the first novel of an experienced screenwriter, and it certainly shows. Nothing in Wheeler's text could not be done more efficiently and effectively on a screen. That applies especially to the train-centered chase episode near the book's end! All of the supernatural elements are described as if to provide specs for effects engineers. Still, keeping to such conventions certainly makes the narrative accessible and fast-paced. show less

The premise is outstanding and the cast of characters unparalleled. There were a few scenes that I felt were a little weak, but on the whole this is a book well worth reading, and almost mandatory for anyone who is interested in Marie Laveau, HP Lovecraft, Harry Houdini, Arthur Conan Doyle, or Aleister Crowley. It is also the only book I know with a train-chase scene, which is usually reserved for movies.

The Arcanum by Thomas Wheeler was recommended to me by a friend. I can't remember the exact context of the recommendation but it came with a physical copy of the book.

The book begins with Arthur Conan Doyle in New York to help solve a murder and exonerate his friend H.P. Lovecraft. He gets help from Harry Houdini. Together the three of them as well as a woman who should have been dead and buried are part of a secret society called The Arcanum.

The purpose of the Arcanum is built on the same mythology as the set up to Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series. That unexpected connection is part of the reason I had to stop reading The Arcanum. While both are fantasies that dabble in the silly, Clare is able to stretch my suspension of show more disbelief without actually breaking it.

There were just too many outrageous things for me to believe. First is the oddball almost college fraternity behavior of Doyle and Houdini, both who were well past that age. Then there were their heroics which at one point involved walking tightrope style across either phone or power lines! It was just too much. show less

The Arcanum by Thomas Wheeler

There's simply not much more I could want out of a book. There's a serial killer going around NY mutilating his victims by ripping out their spines. The accused: H. P. Lovecraft. Fortuitously, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, has decided to pay an incognito visit to NY driven by the death of his mentor in a secret society, Konstantin Duvall. Between Doyle and a reluctant Houdini, HPL is freed from Bellevue, where he's been incarcerated. Add Marie Laveau to the mix and you've got the Arcanum, a secret society formed to keep the darker occult forces (like, say Aleister Crowley) at bay. Though Crowley really is small peanuts compared to the man dubbed "the Occult Killer" by police. Well written, well paced, and rather show more creepy. A great book. show less

Wow, this was one was a bit out there. You had to go with the flow in terms of how the author characterized these famous personages, but once you got into it, the story had a breakneck pace and I loved the twists and turns. I think Harry Houdini was the best--and probably the most accurate--in character. I think Wheeler did better with his original characters than with the members of the Arcanum (Marie Leveau, Arthur Conan Doyle, H.P. Lovecraft, etc.) If you're into horror, though, Wheeler has a great grasp of langauge. I enjoyed it!

If you can engage with the concept of an esoteric secret society staffed by Houdini, Lovecraft, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Marie Laveau, you'll enjoy the book.

This was a fun read, though very much a first novel with a lot of attendant conceits that almost threw me out of the story. Still, the idea that Lovecraft was actually a sorcerer amuses, though the multiple cameos of Aleister Crowley and William Randolph Hearst distracted as much as they furthered the plot.

Inspite of the reviews I had read for this book, I really enjoyed it. I am a huge Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes fan and did enjoy the journey this book took me on. To make Conan Doyle a character was brilliant. Also nice to see the other characters and their interactions.