"The Return of the Deep Ones"

by Brian Lumley

originally published Fantasy Book March-June-September 1984

John Vollister is a respected marine biologist, independently wealthy, living in an English coastal village.  One day he received a gift in the mail from a man named Marsh in America - a conch shell of a kind he has never seen before.  He begins to dream of storms, ones that aren't actually happening.

Soon after, he gets a call from a man named Semple who has information on the conch.  And he meets a hot American chick named Sarah on the beach.

Semple turns out to be an occultist and a bit of a creep.  He links the conch shell to certain occult titles (guess which ones!?!?), of which he has copies back at the club on the coast where he's staying.

John visits the club for lunch, where he is put off by the "fishy" appearance of the members, including Sarah's aged dad.  They are building models of mythical cities, such as R'lyeh and Y'ha'nthlei.  He has a seafood lunch that causes him to pass out.

He finds himself back at home, with Sarah taking care of him.  Sarah proceeds to take care of him in other ways as well.

John makes his way back one night to retrieve his conch shell, when he encounters what he later learns is a shoggoth watchdog!  He finds himself in a subterranean tank, held prisoner by the odd club-dwellers, who begin a series of medical treatments to turn him "deep".

Soon, another prisoner shows up in the next tank.  He turns out to be Jeremy Belton, a journalist, and proceeds to relate Lumley's previously-published tale, "Haggopian".  He is eventually murdered.

Finally, John escapes.  He manages to make it back into the town, but local friends and the police are in cahoots with the Deep Ones.  He, too, is becoming more "deep".  He barricades himself in his house.  The club lays siege, attempting to capture him.  He writes this story and hides it under the boards of the house.  He is taken.  Unbeknownst to him, the manuscript is found as well.

This is an above-average Lumley story, but far from his best.  There's some nice build-up and paranoid action at the end, but the long middle-section with John as a prisoner drags, and its embarassing that as late as `84 Lumley is still padding his stories with older works.  

A cut above his worst, a cut or two below his best.