# The Atrocity Archives

By Charles Stross · The Laundry Files, book 1

Profile: https://hahafiction.com/books/the-atrocity-archives-508ce053/

Bob Howard fixes computers for the Laundry, a branch of British intelligence that deals with the occult. Then he gets a field assignment of his own. He’ll have to put his technical skills to work against threats that can cross over from another universe.

## What makes it funny?

Bob has a Palm that can make him invisible. It’s a Hand of Glory, an actual severed hand. Getting it to work involves setting it alight.

### The comedy at work

Bob still has to do his time sheets after he gets into fieldwork. The Laundry treats office procedure as seriously as the occult. In the follow-up novella, calling for backup in an emergency gets Bob reprimanded for skipping clearance and the paperwork.

### Try this if…

There’s room here for readers of old British spy thrillers who would happily follow an operation into Lovecraft territory. This is a world where changing a variable in an equation can summon a monster, which makes a computer technician a sensible person to send into the field.

### Good to know

The Ace paperback pairs the opening novel, The Atrocity Archive, with the follow-up novella The Concrete Jungle. The plural on the cover is the title of the whole volume.

## What to expect

- Genre: Crime & thriller · Horror · Science fiction
- On the shelf: Cosmic horror · Spy & espionage
- Kind of humor: Dark comedy · Satire
- Audience: Adult
- Format: Novel
- Published: 2004

## A few distinguishing details

- A secret occult agency with time sheets
- A severed hand among the field equipment

## Sources & further reading

- Library catalog: [Evanston Public Library first-edition record](https://evanstonlibrary.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S202C392257)
- Publisher: [Orbit book page](https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/charles-stross/the-atrocity-archives/9780356502397)
- Publisher: [Penguin Random House book page](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/297025/the-atrocity-archives-by-charles-stross/paperback)
- Review: [The Little Red Reviewer](https://littleredreviewer.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/the-atrocity-archives-a-laundry-files-novel-by-charles-stross)
- Review: [Publishers Weekly review](https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781930846258)