In 1919, a New York journalist named Robert Black sets out across New England to research a book about America's hidden occult history, and begins to meet people and places who will one day be immortalised, and heavily disguised, in the stories of H.P. Lovecraft. Black does not realise he is in a horror story. The reader realises it almost at once.
Providence is the centrepiece of Moore's long argument with Lovecraft, both a love letter to his work and a sharp look at its racism, fear and sexual anxieties. Burrows' art is calm, clear and precise, which makes the moments of horror all the worse. It is not an easy read, but it is one of Moore's most ambitious works. Players of Call of Cthulhu will find it especially rewarding (see the SFcrowsnest tabletop guide).
