4/5 stars

It’s the mid eighties in England and Derek Reilly got swept up by the Satanic panic for running a D&D campaign. After it got cleared up, his mates were let go, but Derek remained incarcerated in Camp Sunshine — a deprogramming place for cultists and other magic users. Magic is real and turns out Derek had a latent ability.

A few decades pass and Derek, who’s been running a play-by-mail campaign learns of a D&D convention happening nearby and decides to visit. Except his experience with the adult world is essentially zero and as mentioned before, magic is very real.

Derek the DM’s character appeared in some of the previous books. This is his origin story and not a sequel to the last Laundry Files book (Dead Lies Dreaming), nor the New Management spin-off (Season of Skulls). Instead, it’s a fresh look into this modern-adjacent world, its unspeakable horrors and of course massive bureaucracy fuckups.

The start was a bit slow, but once it picked up the pace (starting with Derek’s escape), it kept sprinting towards the end and I really enjoyed it. Derek, whom I knew as a grumpy seasoned forecaster of the future is presented here full of childlike wonder and uncertainty — seeing the world for the first time. And yet when push comes to shove, he’ll take initiative and save the day.

I was struck by how much this resembled The Atrocity Archives — the book that spawned this whole series. Length-wise, it’s almost a novella with a single plot thread, but executed really well. It’s topped off by a couple of short stories and the author’s essay on AD&D and the Satanic panic throughout its recent history (QAnon, anyone?).

All great stuff.

This review was originally posted to Goodreads.

by Tomas Sedovic on 15th October, 2025