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"The Gentleman Caller" is a short story by American author Lucy A. Snyder.
Synopsis[]
When a mentally and physically damaged woman is gifted a strange necklace by a mysterious stranger, it unlocks her natural ability to switch bodies with other people. The stranger then asked her to release a man from an on-ship prison: the man turns out to be a cultist who uses his newfound freedom to launch a cruise missile which will awaken an ancient entity from its sleeping place beneath the Pacific Ocean.
Characters[]
- Janie, a woman who was severely crippled by childhood surgery.
- Brandon Wilks, an urbane and manipulative cultist.
Publication History[]
"The Gentleman Caller" was first published in the Dark Regions Press anthology Return of the Old Ones: Apocalyptic Lovecraftian Horror in 2017. It was also included in a collection of Snyder's own works, Garden of Eldritch Delights, in October 2018.
Trivia[]
- The description of the necklace which Janie is gifted is highly reminiscent of the Deep One jewellery encountered by Robert Olmstead in H. P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth.
- The being awakened by the cruise missile strike is implied to have been Great Cthulhu itself.