HUGH B. CAVE

Born in England in 1910, Hugh B. Cave also lived in Boston and Haiti during his life. He published over forty books and more than 1,000 stories before his death in 2004. He wrote in a wide variety of genres but is primarily remembered for his adventure, crime, and horror stories. Here’s a look at a few of his short tales:

1. “The Murder Machine” (1930) – A psychiatrist is drawn into a murder mystery when a prestigious sportsman comes to him claiming something forced him to go to the house of a man he never met before with intent to murder him in this intriguing psychic-mystery.

2. “The Corpse on the Grating” (1930) – After hearing tale of a professor’s attempts to reanimate corpses, a man is challenged by his friend to spend the night in an abandoned warehouse.

3. “Ladies in Waiting” (1975) – A woman and her husband return to a vacant house that’s for sale. During their previous visit, they became trapped in the house by a bad snowstorm. When the husband, who had bad feelings about the place, left his wife in one of its rooms to try and free the car, he returned to find her in a a state of shock. She claimed she saw something, and the room contained a strange masculine smell. They are able to leave the following day, but several months later she begs him to return to the house. Reluctantly, he agrees. Upon arrival, it begins to seem the house itself wants them there.

4. “The Door Below” (1981) – A journalist and his new girlfriend travel to an abandoned lighthouse in search of evidence that a millionaire cosmetics founder didn’t actually die 987erbut faked his death to disappear with his Spanish mistress. They arrive, start searching the place called Dolphinback, then become trapped by a sudden storm. They find things inside that suggests something evil and unworldly happened there.

5. “A Place of No Return” (1981) – While attempting to disprove their existence, an American professor traveling through Haiti makes a deal to pay a local man to take him to zombies he can photograph.

6. “House of Shadows” (2007) – When an elderly woman and her suitor encounter a vile group of young criminals, a supernatural element makes its presence known.

Article by Matt Cowan