I have not read a great deal of Cave's work, but a few years ago, I was lucky enough to get a copy of of the Carcosa edition of Murgunstrumm and Others, and as a small press collector I snapped it up. I did read a few of the stories, but they did not seize my imagination. Recently, however, I learned that Cave had penned a couple of mythos tales, "The Death Watch" and "The Isle of Dark Magic," and I read both. I will be including some spoilers when discussing the general themes of the stories.
At the beginning of "The Isle of Dark Magic," we are told that Captain Bruk was on the beach when he accepted the command of the Bella Gale, a schooner-rigged tramp picking up cargo in the south seas. One of his first duties is transporting Peter Mace and his very large trunk to the island of Faikana. Faikana is not the island negotiated between Mace and the company, but once he is on board, Mace bribes Bruk to take him to one of the most sparsely occupied islands available. Indeed Faiikana's only inhabitants are a small native village and a rather nosey missionary. Mace has the villagers build him an isolated cabin with a small second-story room only he is allowed to enter. But eventually, we learn that the first floor contains a number of forbidden books (do we really need a list), and that the second floor contains a sculpture of Mace's dead lover, Maureen Kennedy. Maureen died of natural causes, but before burying her in an unmarked grave, Mace has had the statue constructed by an artist friend. Eventually, Mace's obsession with the statue and his various books of forbidden lore prove to be too much even for his friend, and he has come to Faikana to continue his work. He is all too successful, and Bruk returns to the island with a second passenger.
"The Death Watch" is related by Harry, who works nights at a radio station in rural Florida. He is friends with Elaine and Peter Ingram, who rent a large rundown manor house at the edge of a swamp. At one point, Elaine lived there with her mother and brother Mark. Eventually, she left to marry
Peter. Mark remained alone in the house until he died sometime later. Harry was one of only two people present when Mark died. Elaine has become obsessed with Mar's death and quizzes Harry about Mark's last words. Harry admits that yes, Mark said how much he loved her, and when pressed, he admits not entirely truthfully that Mark promised to return. This promise and a collection of old occult books consume her time to the extent that Peter is quite worried about her mental state.
Elaine has also invited old Yago a Seminole shaman, to share the house with Peter and her. At a loss at how to proceed, Peter, having learned a lot about radio equipment on visits to the station where Harry works, begins to build his own set. As Peter begins to look ill and drained by his efforts, Harry investigates only to find that Peter is not only using quite advanced radio manuals but also Eliane's strange old books. One night Harry is at the station subbing for a sick friend when he hears Pater's first broadcast and heads for the house. But of course, he is too late.
Overall I thought Cave's stories were okay. The mythos elements, however, consisted of a list of books and a few chanted names used in rituals to raise the dead. When I was in grade eight, a friend introduced me to Jack London's South Sea Tales and the adventures of Captain David Grief. I loved these books and still have copies. When I read the beginning of "The Isle of Dark Magic," and was told that Captain Bruk was on the beach when he accepted the command of the Bella Gale, a schooner-rigged tramp picking up cargo in the south seas, I hoped the story might have some of that flavour. Instead, Bruk is a nautical UPS courier delivering the characters to their doom. Cave toured that Pacific as a reporter in WWII and ran a coffee plantation in Hati for five years. He also wrote a critically acclaimed non-fiction book on voodoo based on his years in Hati. I enjoy Henry S. Whitehead's voodoo tales and might have hoped for something similar. Instead, we get Pygmalion mixed with any number of stories of dead lovers, family members, murder victims etc. bent on vengeance. As one might expect from a story entitled "The Death Watch' the theme here is pretty much the same without the statue. In both stories, Cave did inject some interesting elements in "The Isle of Dark Magic" the statue acts, it seems out of jealousy rather than vengeance. In "The Death Watch" the use of radio could have made for an interesting element in the story. But I think Cave largely wasted it, choosing instead to rely on the overused pulp trope of the startling revelation in the last couple of lines to tie the story together.
I would try Cave again, although not right way. I would be interested to see how he is when he is being Hugh B. Cave and not HPL.
