Two graduate students walk the winding road to madness, one in New England, the other New Zealand. Yet each suffers silently, facing grave danger when their curiosity gets the better of them. 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.

With this debut volume, Tony LaMalfa can take his place among the leading Lovecraftian writers of our time.

Published on August 20 (H. P. Lovecraft’s Birthday) of 2023 by Hippocampus Press.

“The pair of novellas in Forbidden Knowledge constitute some of the most vibrant and chilling ventures into Lovecraftian fiction in recent decades. Tony LaMalfa has captured the atmosphere of Lovecraft’s work—whether it be the cloistered halls of Miskatonic University in “The Face on the Floor” or the hints of aquatic Deep Ones in “If Only Skin Deep”—with a skill and elegance that renders each tale a richly textured excursion into cosmic horror. A new Lovecraftian writer has arrived!”

—S. T. Joshi, author of I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft

“With Forbidden Knowledge, Tony LaMalfa establishes himself as an extraordinary new Lovecraftian voice. “The Face on the Floor” channels not only Lovecraft, but Clark Ashton Smith as well, supplying an explanation to a long-pondered passage from one of the master’s greatest tales. Meanwhile, in “If Only Skin Deep,” the author expertly invokes Margaret Mead to lead the reader into seemingly familiar Lovecraftian territory, only to betray them with a wondrously diabolical twist. LaMalfa’s premiere is both delightful and tantalizing, and I look forward to what is yet to come.”

—Pete Rawlik, author of The Weird Company

“Tony LaMalfa has crafted a pair of novellas so well-versed in the oeuvre of Lovecraft, he had me convinced-at times-I was reading an undiscovered work by Lovecraft himself. But Forbidden Knowledge is far too dynamic, unsettling, and utterly original to be anything other than the work of an explosive new talent, a talent whose prose burns like a white-hot star from beyond the fourth dimension. Lovecraft scholars and general horror fans alike will delight in this magnetic, magical tome.”

—Christa Carmen, Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked

“Tony LaMalfa offers two fresh takes on some well-known characters straight out of the pages of Lovecraft’s tales. From the dusty stacks of the Miskatonic University’s Orne Library to New Zealand and beyond, these stories conjure new insights, twists, and horrors concerning the Cthulhu Mythos. Read them at night, with the lights off.”

—Mike Mason, Creative Director for the Call of Cthulhu TTRPG