The King and the Pallid Mask by Frank Cavallo is a delightfully dark and twisted look into the sinister forces lurking just beyond our world, who use humanity as pawns in their sick machinations. Blending horror, mystery, and supernatural elements, the story relates what happens to those who investigate their world and the consequences of uncovering those secrets.

We follow Kyle Hawkes, a writer and popular paranormal investigator. His final story, before attempting to get into legitimate reporting, was on a young girl’s demonic possession in Italy in 1997 and the Vatican’s involvement in covering up what truly happened. Though Kyle and his fiancée, Ella, decided never to release the footage, a hacker leaked parts of it online.

This breach of secrecy draws the attention of an Italian Baron, whose family belongs to an ancient, secretive order known as the Venatores Maleficarum. The Baron offers Kyle’s producer, Alec, a significant deal to broadcast the full story and include footage from the Baron’s castle in Turin. Though hesitant and worried about betraying Ella’s trust, Kyle allows Alec to investigate the offer.

Spurred by the possibility of releasing the story, he pays a visit to a former Vatican Cardinal, seeking out information on one of the missing pieces from the original research, the priest who performed the exorcism. But the mysterious Father Zacharias Stilicho finds him, warning him that there are forces in the shadows that he has put into motion, and if he doesn’t join him, his life may be at risk.

First, to be completely transparent, I am a big fan of The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers, which led me to select this book to see what Frank Cavallo would do with the original stories that even influenced H.P. Lovecraft’s The Whisperer in Darkness. I was not disappointed.

Reader be warned, this story is not for the squeamish. The opening scene is brutal, involving a detailed description of both physical and mental torture. But what follows is a story filled with tension, morally gray choices, and a creeping sense of doom with a healthy dose of absolute horror I haven’t seen in a while. Cavallo excels at building a tension-filled atmosphere with Kyle’s descent into the darkest corners of reality and his struggle between truth and obsession.

Fans of Lovecraftian horror, religious conspiracies, and layered mythologies will find plenty to savor here. The King and the Pallid Mask isn’t just about monsters in the dark. It’s about the terrifying cost of dragging those monsters into the light and the horrific realization of how insignificant humanity is to them.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Many thanks to the publisher, Evil Cookie Publishing, the author, Frank Cavallo, and Book Sirens for allowing me to review this book.