"Beyond the Reef"

by Basil Copper
originally published Shadows Over Innsmouth, Del Rey books, 1994

Weird things going down at Miskatonic U.  A giant stone cross suddenly crumbles apart.  A body is found in the river.  A set of tunnels are found under the university leading out towards Innsmouth and the sea.  Dean Darrow and surveyor Andrew Bellows poke around the tunnels, but a vision of black, serpent-like creatures sends them fleeing.  Inspector Oates pokes around Innsmouth, and gets an unfriendly welcome. 

Oates learns that some evil race from beyond the reef, off of Innsmouth, is attempting to burrow its way into Arkham.  Drastic steps are taken to prevent this from happening.

Despite my rather terse summary, this story, though pulpy as hell, is also a lot of fun.  A fairly gripping Lovecraft pastiche which actually manages a bit of originality - insofar as Copper likes to devise his own monsters. This is one of the more entertaining HPL hommages I've come across.