The Evil

Rating:
Summary: The Evil
Review: When renowned Dr. Bell goes missing in the jungles of Haiti while following up rumours of some kind of powerful psychic overlord, his daughter Mildred persuades Sam Norman, a friend of the family, to help her find him. The result is a bizarre odyssey of terror, through villages that cower in fear of zombies, up mountains with narrow treacherous pathways quick to claim the unwary, and even hostile illusory landscapes of fire, darkness, strange drumming, and horridly nightmarish creatures, designed to stall all but the bravest rescuer.

Sam and Mildred, always trying to spot what's real and what's illusion, cross what comes to seem like much of Haiti, following the trail left by Dr. Bell which inevitably brings them into the (psychic) clutches of a mind-controlling, hallucination-inducing madman known only as Margal. But if this Margal exists, what has he done with Mildred's father? And whom can they trust along the way, when it becomes obvious that Margal has sly associates everywhere, who pretend to be friendly, but are merely helping Sam and the young lady wander into a trap? And what does it all have to do with a political assassination plot?

Several dangerous situations help form a bond between Sam and Mildred as they travel, and soon their relationship develops a sexual aspect; this complicates things, when the pair collide with Sam's ex-lover, Kay, a nurse who is escorting an amnesiac waif named Tina back to her remote village. Sam had been hoping their paths might intersect, since gossip had filtered through concerning Kay's whereabouts, but the reunion is tense due to their last angry evening together so long ago.

Plus, little Tina is more than she seems...or less?

Hugh B. Cave weaves a chilling spider-web of a story, where scattered characters slowly converge on the center of the web, a hub of evil, where a powerful, paranormal villain lies in wait, determined not to let his farflung schemes be foiled by any meddlers. I liked all the little surprises, the use of illusion and mind-manipulation as a potent weapon on the part of the evildoer, and even the progression of the love-triangle subplot. The only negative: Cave's style, in this novel, is not always conducive to real chills and thrills. He lacks the real ability to take this thing to the next level of terror--a shame, really, with all these delightfully dreadful elements in place. His style is not wooden, but The Evil could have been scarier throughout, and it has to do with style: successful, yes, but not topnotch.

Still, a worthy horror novel of voodoo, zombies, and such-like, that seems to have spawned a late sequel, since Cave put one out called The Evil Returns.