[Book dealer] Slater was right to be skeptical. In the years between Lovecraft’s death in 1937 and that day in 1972 when Simon brought him the manuscript, there had been several attempts to bring Lovecraft’s Necronomicon to life — but these books were always understood to pay homage to Lovecraft. But the Simon Necronomicon was an actual magical document that Simon claims predated Lovecraft’s stories by several hundred years. If real, it would mean that Lovecraft’s stories weren’t entirely fictional, after all.
Spoiler: Flatley all but confirms that “Simon” is occult author Peter Lavendera, whose voice is identical to the crudely-distored (and easily undistorted) voice attributed to Simon on his radio show appearances.