The Shadow over Innsmouth

The Shadow over Innsmouth is a horror novella by American writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in late 1931 and first published in 1936. It forms part of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and was the only Lovecraft story published in book form during his lifetime. The narrative follows a young traveler who visits the decaying Massachusetts coastal town of Innsmouth and uncovers its inhabitants' disturbing secret history of interbreeding with a malign undersea civilization. The story is considered one of the central works establishing the Mythos's motif of hidden, ancient horrors beneath ordinary New England towns.