ing this, one of his most famous, humans cooper-
ate to some extent in that effort. The story opens
slowly but effectively, describing the environs of
Dunwich, Massachusetts, a remote, decaying town
whose inhabitants are inbred and narrowminded.
Among their number is the Whateley family, dis-
liked and feared by their neighbors. Wilbur
Whateley was born under unusual circumstances,
matured with surprising quickness, and keeps to
himself, studying arcane books and never exposing
much of his body to scrutiny. He and his grandfa-
ther make frequent alterations to their farmhouse,
removing partitions and boarding up the windows
on the second floor. They also buy cattle in large
numbers, although the size of their herd never
seems to increase.
Although still only a teenager, Whateley ap-
pears to be an adult when he travels to Miskatonic
University to study their copy of The Necronomi-
con,a fictional book that Lovecraft created for this
cycle of stories, although there have subsequently
been several modern Necronomiconspublished to
take advantage of the title’s familiarity. Whateley’s
efforts are thwarted by Dr. Henry Armitage, an ex-
pert on the occult, who suspects that the young
man’s studies are dangerous. He is not greatly sur-
prised when Whateley later attempts to steal the
book. A guard dog kills the intruder, and he is re-
vealed to be only marginally human, his body mal-
formed and alien. More significantly, since his
grandfather has already passed on, there is no one
to watch over whatever it is that lives in the
boarded up farmhouse.
That creature emerges and launches a series
of destructive attacks in Dunwich. At first only
cattle are killed, but then one family is wiped out,
followed by another. The creature itself is enor-
mous and leaves footprints but is invisible, seen
only very briefly when Armitage and two friends
appear on the scene to use magical incantations
to reveal the creature and expel it from our uni-
verse. The creature is, of course, Whateley’s twin
brother, but we are told that he looked more like
the father than Wilbur did. “The Dunwich Hor-
ror” is one of Lovecraft’s most popular stories, and
it became a low-budget motion picture in 1970
with a screenplay that did not radically differ from
the original story line.
Durgin, Doranna(1960– )
With her debut novel, Dun Lady’s Jess(1994), Do-
ranna Durgin turned a familiar fantasy device on
its head. Instead of a human being transformed
into the shape of an animal, the protagonist in this
case is a horse who is magically changed into
human form. Her efforts to find her former master
are hampered significantly by her adjustment to
her new circumstances and the vagaries of human
society. Jess returns in a sequel, Changespell(1997),
in which she has managed an uneasy accommoda-
tion to being a werehorse until she discovers that
someone is deliberately causing other people to be-
come involuntary shape changers. The sequel is
not quite as charming as the original, but the char-
acter is sufficiently interesting to compensate for
the shortcomings of the plot.
A second duo consists of Touched by Magic
(1997) and Wolf Justice(1998), set in an alternate
world from which magic has disappeared, a condi-
tion that seems to be on the verge of reversing it-
self. The subsequent adventures of the protagonist
are competently told but lack the cleverness of the
Jess stories. Barrenlands(1998) is similarly a well-
crafted tale of court intrigues and secretive battles
for control of a throne, but once again it appears
that Durgin was simply drawing upon familiar plots
and standard story elements rather than develop-
ing her own alternate world.
Wolverine’s Daughter(2000) is a mixture of
quests and the coming of age of a young woman.
This time Durgin rises above her straightforward
subject material by means of a thoughtfully de-
tailed portrait of its central character, who seeks
to learn why her father abandoned her as a child.
Seer’s Blood (2000) shows continued improve-
ment, set in an unusual fantasy world that resem-
bles rural Appalachia. A band of travelers turns
out to be a covert invasion force armed with mag-
ical talents. There is a darker tone in A Feral
Darkness (2001), whose protagonist is a dog
groomer whose neighbor has summoned super-
natural assistance.
Durgin’s more recent novels have been some-
what disappointing. Changespell Legacy(2002) is a
low-key and only marginally satisfying addition to the
story of Jess, and Dark Debts(2003) is a competent
but unmemorable tie-in to a game system. Durgin’sDurgin, Doranna 99