is threatened when one man plots to sacrifice his
brother in order to acquire enhanced powers. Dark
Ways to Death(1968) is a surprisingly complex
story about a cult of Satan worshippers who live a
secret life concealed beneath a major city. In The
Haunting of Alan Mais(1968), the best in the se-
ries, one of the guardians is supernaturally cor-
rupted during a visit to a haunted house and
attacks the organization from within. They travel
to Australia to involve themselves in aboriginal
magic in The Killing Bone(1968) and battle an oc-
cult evil that exists simultaneously in more than
one age in Through the Dark Curtain(1968). The
Vampires of Finistere(1970) is also quite original,
the story of a town overrun by a variety of vampire
that lives in the ocean.
The Specialist series, all six written as Errol
Lecale, similarly explore a variety of traditional
horror themes, with the occult investigator protag-
onist triumphing over all of his adversaries, but the
individual stories, which involve shape-changers, a
curse, a ghoul, and other magical terrors are con-
siderably less substantial and more formulaic than
the Guardians novels. McNeilly’s nonseries efforts
vary considerably in quality. Drums of the Dark
Gods(1966), written as W. A. Ballinger, is a disor-
ganized occult adventure that is frequently implau-
sible but sometimes quite exciting. The cult of Kali
is resurgent in The Darkest Night(1966), and Black
Honey(1968) pits modern society against African
witchcraft. Satan’s Child(1967) rather routinely
describes the efforts of a magically empowered man
to avenge the death of his mother. The Torturer
(1966) and Vampire’s Moon(1970) are both rou-
tine vampire novels, although well told. The Disori-
entated Man(1966, also published as Scream and
Scream Again) mixes the supernatural with super-
science and was the basis of a bland horror film.
McNeilly failed to distinguish himself under any of
his various names, but his Guardians series in par-
ticular suggested that he was able to bring new
ideas to an old venue and turn them into good if
not spectacular novels.
Scarborough, Elizabeth Ann(1947– )
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough started her career
writing lightly humorous, traditional fantasies in
familiar settings. Her first novel, Song of Sorcery
(1982), introduces Maggie Brown, a good witch
who sets out on various quests, and her career con-
cludes in The Unicorn Creed(1983), which was fol-
lowed by two related novels set in the same
universe, Bronwyn’s Bane(1983) and The Christen-
ing Quest(1985). The second set of two follows a
similar path, although the protagonist’s curse—she
is incapable of telling the truth—leads to some
amusing situations.
Scarborough continued to experiment with
settings throughout the 1980s, but for most of that
time she continued to use a light, playful style. The
Harem of Aman Akbar (1984) is an Arabian
Nights–style adventure in which one of three
wives of a powerful man decides to intervene when
her husband is magically transformed. The Drastic
Dragon of Draco, Texas (1986) anachronistically
drops a traditional dragon into a small Texas town,
where it is subsequently tamed by a young woman.
The Goldcamp Vampire(1987) is set in the Yukon
during the Gold Rush, a climate ideally suited for
an amicable vampire who takes advantage of the
extended nights.
Scarborough was firmly established as a writer
of light adventure stories when she finally turned
to more serious themes. The Healer’s War(1978),
which won the Nebula Award as best novel of the
year, describes the transformation of a nurse as-
signed to duty during the war in Vietnam. Her un-
suspected magical talent is detected by a local
healer who gives her an amulet that enables her to
see through the lies people tell. Nothing Sacred
(1991) is technically science fiction, but in the se-
quel, The Last Refuge(1992), we discover in the af-
termath of a nuclear war that reincarnation and
other supposedly fictional concepts are real. An in-
teresting but minor trilogy followed, in which su-
pernatural forces attempt to wipe out folk music,
which in some fashion guards humanity. The titles
are Phantom Banjo (1991), Picking the Ballad’s
Bones(1991), and Strum Again?(1992).
The Godmother trilogy, The Godmother
(1994), The Godmother’s Apprentice (1995), and
The Godmother’s Web(1998), returns to her earlier
light humor, although it has grown more sophisti-
cated and is woven around serious themes. A gen-
uine fairy godmother solves various problems inScarborough, Elizabeth Ann 309