We fear discovery when we should fear what there is to discover.Lovecraft and his successors show a world where human civilisation is only a thin veneer over black seas of ignorance. A world where men exalted for their reason uncover logic-defying truths. A world where the marginalised discover uncaring horror on the fringes of a society that rejects them. A world where the bonds between us unravel.But what of those who wear their own averageness like a veneer? Neither drawn toward the horror by academic curiosity nor driven their by society, but unmoored by a mundane secret.A Spanish priest struggling with base desires plots to save a native child from brutal sacrifice.A veteran hiding the extent of his mental wounds discovers the true war on terror is very different.A delinquent’s secret passion for stamp collecting draws him into a dark bargain.And nine more tales of overtly normal people coming adrift in an incomprehensible universe.