This is a historical Trail of Cthulhu adventure that departs from the usual 1930s haunt and makes its way to the 1950s. Not much is needed to adjust the time/mood to the 1950s and the adventure provides some useful transitional notes for that purpose. It is very Lovecraftian noir in 1950s California like the films of that era and/or just prior. As for me the 1940s mark the highpoint of noir. However, what the 1950s are famous for is their rather camp, quaint yet terror laden Science Fiction which this adventure throws this in for good measure. And, if that were not enough, the adventure throws in real life historical personages from the era – in this case notable Science Fiction authors.

In which players can take on the roles Robert Heinlein, his ex-Navy engineer wife Virginia, renowned editor and mystery writer Tony Boucher, or a young Philip K. Dick as they meet head-on the lunatic fringe in La-La Land, and unearth a dastardly plot involving getting themselves trapped in a pretender’s tangled web of chicanery, falsehoods, and treachery connecting it to a robust Mythos peril that threatens to overtake the world or at least California. The pretender is thinly disguised L. Ron Hubbard. Although, all this may sound rather pulpish, it shares more in the purist vein of Trail of Cthulhu.

The narrative is pivots around a conspiracy directly taken from history, the intrigue centres on the strange explosive death of real-world rocket scientist, science fiction fan, and occultist Jack Parsons in a garage laboratory in 1952. The investigators, as stated above are iconic individuals very active in the science fiction scene at the time of Parsons’ death. Should they not wish to play those personages the adventure gives guidelines how to substitute them with others. Their inquiries lead them from the mean streets of Pasadena to the edge of the Mojave Desert and the mountains of southern California as well as the beaches of Los Angeles.

The adventure includes brief biographical hooks for the Player Characters designed to make them conversant with their investigators. Brief rules for a magic system intended to evoke the Enochian “magick” invented by John Dee and Edward Kelley, adopted by Aleister Crowley, and passed on to Jack Parsons are appended, and are used in the adventure.

The adventure effortless transports investigators from scene to scene without the need to railroad the players. The clues themselves lead the players to frightful conclusions steadily ramping up the suspense level until the final climax. The adventure, also, includes a number of smart puzzles/riddles for the players to solve showing the increasing sophistication of the Trail of Cthulhu line. In addition, the narrative is plausible taking place like all good Cthulhu adventures – a parallel world that resembles ours or perhaps is ours, save, “…the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”

The overall layout and set up of the adventure has also improved from earlier offerings. More help has been made available for the Keeper to run the adventure. The overall adventure narrative is broken down at the beginning. Different sections, while sometimes repetitive are useful for the Keeper who decides to run this as a one shot, as they embellish content rather than turn off the reader. Notwithstanding, more work has still to be done in this regard.

The art is Jerome who did a really great job of invoking a noirish feel of the adventure. Every supplement/adventure he seems to have perfectly captured what Cthulhu is – whether it is in its purist, pulp or now noir theme. For me, at least, Jerome is the successor to greats like Blair Reynolds who managed to terrify me long after I have shelved the books away. He encapsulates magnificently the totality of the Cthulhu vibe and hope that he has been also approached by Chaosium. This adventure can be played as a serve as the basis for a slightly longer set of episodes covering two or three evenings of entertainment or simply as a convention one-shot.