Not a bad read. It's not in Lovecraft-style, but plays in Arkham 1920ies, doing a horror-styled crime story. Did drag a bit towards the end when some things became clear yet some running around still had to be done. ( )

Wrath of N'kai is the first of a new series of licensed novels from publisher Aconyte Books set in the Arkham Horror game milieu. Unlike the recent investigator novellas from the game publisher Fantasy Flight, this one is at full novel length. It also lacks an established player character from the game for its protagonist. Instead, it has international adventuress and "gentlewoman thief" Countess Alessandra Zorzi as the principal investigator of the story. She is assisted by plucky trans-man cabbie Pepper Kelly. Neither of these have appeared in the games as far as I know. But the setting is unmistakably the Arkham of the games: various player characters do appear, such as Harvey Walters, Preston Fairmont, Tommy Muldoon, and Daisy Walker. Organizations like the O'Bannion gang and the Silver Twilight Lodge are also important to the story, which takes place entirely within the city limits of Arkham, starting with Alessandra's arrival by train.

Despite ample stigmata of the Arkham Files universe, the narrative continuity of this story has in one case been better conformed to the original pulp-era literature. The underearth kingdom of K'n-yan is here given as lying beneath Oklahoma as it does in "The Mound" (1940) by Zealia Bishop and H.P. Lovecraft. The game designers had transferred K'n-yan to Mexico in the adventure "Heart of the Elders" for the Forgotten Age cycle of Arkham Horror: The Card Game. The plot of Wrath of N'kai centers on a scrimmage for a mummy recovered from K'nyan by a Miskatonic University archaeological expedition.

Author Josh Reynolds is a veteran at writing fiction for game universes such as the various Warhammer worlds, and he has also written some occult adventure in his "Tales of the Royal Occultist" novels. His reading in the relevant literature is signaled by clever allusions like Alessandra's mentor Nuth (lifted from a story by Lord Dunsany). Wrath of N'kai has a lively pace, and I often read multiple short chapters at a single sitting. It is definitely more pulp adventure than weird horror, despite the Lovecraftian praeternatural elements. The prose isn't highly polished, but it is engaging. I enjoyed it, and I would be willing to read a sequel about Alessandra's adventures beyond Arkham.