The melodrama cools down considerably in
Castle Murders(1991), which spoofs conventions of
both fantasy novels and the detective story genre.
Castle Dreams(1992) is another episodic story, only
slightly more interesting than Castle Kidnapped. Cas-
tle Spellbound(1992) is much better but basically re-
iterates many of the situations from Castle War!,and
it was beginning to appear that the author was
growing tired of his creation. The popularity of hu-
morous fantasy had dropped off dramatically by the
middle of the 1990s, and the series came to a close
with Bride of the Castle(1994), in which chaos
breaks out when the guests for a wedding are in-
vited from multiple realities and interact in unex-
pected raucous ways. There are funny moments, but
the jokes were generally repetitions or variations of
previous material. DeChancie went on to write four
more fantasy novels, of which only MagicNet(1993)
is of any lasting interest.
Cave, Hugh (1910–2004)
Hugh Cave was a regular contributor to pulp mag-
azines during the 1930s and 1940s, producing lurid
stories of mystery and adventure interspersed with
supernatural or occult adventures whose heroes
often met grisly deaths or discovered previously
hidden horrors. Many of these early stories fea-
tured grotesque images, and Cave’s prose, consid-
erably more polished than that of most of his
contemporaries, made many of them stand out at
the time, although he never achieved the enduring
status of Ray BRADBURYor Robert BLOCH. A repre-
sentative sampling of his early short fiction can be
found in Murgunstrumm and Others(1977), The
Corpse Maker(1988), Death Stalks by Night(1995),
and The Door Below(1997), although much of his
short fiction remains uncollected. Among his best
works are “Stragella” (1932) and “Murgunstrumm”
(1933), both vampire stories, “Dead Man’s Belt”
(1933), “Disturb Not the Dead” (1936), and
“Calavan” (1942).
Cave lived in Haiti after World War II and be-
came something of an authority on voodoo prac-
tices, writing a considerable amount of nonfiction
on the subject and incorporating authentic voodoo
lore into some of his subsequent novels. Legion of
the Dead(1979), his first novel, is an excellent ex-
ample. An outsider falls in love with a local girl,
earning the ire of the locals, who employ zombies
in their efforts against him. A legless man dwells in
the remote jungles of Haiti in The Evil (1981)
using irresistible mental powers to bend others to
his will. Voodoo magic, zombies, and the quest to
destroy the source of such inhuman power domi-
nate the plot. A much-belated sequel, The Evil Re-
turns(2001), recapitulates the original story and
adds mind control to the mix.
Voodoo is also central to Shades of Evil(1982),
but this time without zombies. Instead, an evil
spirit that manifests itself within a gaseous cloud
emerges from the swamps to claim its victims. In
Disciples of Dread(1989) a man whose brother is a
secret agent with psi powers hides from conspira-
tors in Jamaica, only to discover that he has be-
come the target of voodoo magic. He must match
his own abilities against those of the “houngan”, a
voodoo priest, who has chosen him as a victim.
Voodoo is allied with the hero in The Lower Deep
(1990) when a mysterious force from somewhere in
the ocean enslaves the sleeping minds of villagers,
drawing them out on mysterious and often deadly
missions. The Restless Dead(2003) involves voodoo
only peripherally, as an expert on the subject helps
a troubled family defeat the inhuman creatures
who live secretly beneath their home.
Not all of Cave’s horror novels involve voodoo.
In The Nebulon Horror (1980) a small town in
Florida is beset by increasingly bizarre incidents that
arise from its proximity to a gateway to hell, which
creates an insidious force that affects the minds of
the inhabitants and drives them to commit violent
acts against one another. Lucifer’s Eye(1991) is a
more conventional story about a band of satanists
who have genuine supernatural powers. There are
multiple cases of demonic possession in a small town
in Maine in Isle of the Whisperers(1999), and The
Dawning(2000), technically science fiction, is set in
the near future and involves the struggles between
humans and a variety of mutated animals. Cave’s
horror novels are entertaining and workmanlike,
but he will be remembered primarily for his detailed,
convincing depictions of voodoo magic and ritual.
He won the Bram Stoker Award for lifetime
achievement and the World Fantasy Award for
Murgunstrumm and Others.Cave, Hugh 51