Hugh B. Cave - Legion Of The Dead

[dem bones]

Hugh B. Cave - Legion Of The Dead (Avon, 1979)

Blurb:

Cary Connoway had heard rumours of a mysterious Cult of Death even before he arrived in San Marlo, but nothing could have prepared him for the unspeakable evil that stalked him now. He had come to the primitive Caribbean island for rest and instead found love in the arms of Juana, a beautiful island girl.
Now in the jungle they both faced a relentless, oncoming horror that only the awesome power of voodoo could have raised and only the power of voodoo could stop.

Technically, I should have bunged this in with the USA stuff, but despite his impressive credentials (regular Weird Tales & Strange Tales contributor, Shudder Pulp legend, etc.), Hugh B. Cave (1910-2004) was born in Chester and by God, we won't let them take that away from him!

Legion Of The Dead is set in the nineteen-seventies with Haiti falling to pieces under the Dictatorship of President Olvida. Recently divorced twenty-something Cary flies in from America to recuperate on the coffee plantation owned by Paul Mackey, a close friend from college. Cary figures to spend the vacation researching material for his next book - a study of the semi-mythical Cult of the Dead who operate deep in the San Marlo mountains. The authorities are wary of him from the first - his previous book had been critical of 'Papa Doc' Duvalier's corrupt regime - and it's glaringly apparent that his friend has already attracted the unwanted attentions of the urbane but corpse-like Senor Alfredo Montavon, better known to the population as the President's enforcer. Indeed, Paul is convinced that Montavon murdered his father.

Cary soon learns for himself how intimidating Olvida's goon squad can be when he takes a shine to Juana, the nineteen year old daughter of plucky ex-prostitute Carmita. A local idiot named Pio "Cow Eyes" Baroja has designs on the girl who, naturally, despises him. Pio isn't much to worry about were it not for the fact that his brother Vincente is a hot shot in the secret police.

Up in the mountains, the drums beat relentlessly through the night. Can it really be - as rumour has it - that President Olvida has manufactured an army of zombies to keep his people in check? Judging by the cover, you'd have to say there's a good chance of it.

Five chapters in and this is shaping up to be something sweaty and good and nasty.

[dem bones]

It transpires that Paul's father was murdered for vociferously supporting and funding the opposition party at the rigged election that saw Olvida returned as President. The ghastly enforcer Montavon has a guilty secret - he campaigned against Olivida too, but switched sides when he realised which way the wind was blowing. Secret police chief Baroja knows of this and, having tormented Montavon to his satisfaction, reveals all to the President. Getting rid of Montavon should be good news for the people of San Marlo, but his replacement is the man who betrayed him and, as Paul Mackey ruefully concedes, "He's a bigger bastard than Montevon."

The immediate danger is that Vincent Baroja will grab Juana and make a present of her to his drooling, idiot brother. There's only one thing for it: Cary and Paul will have to take her with them on their expedition into the mountains to discover the truth about the Cult of the Dead ....

Cave introduces the zombies slowly and from what we've seen of them to date they conform to William Seabrook's Dead Men Working In The Cane Fields prototype, mindless animated corpses somehow programmed to carry out simple tasks like murder and abduction. With the help of a friendly octogenarian mountain peasant, Cary has already seen off the evil-reeking pair who attempted to make away with Juana during their first night in camp, and now he and the girl are lovers. Meanwhile, Vincente and his uniformed hoodlums have presumably put two and two together and, when he learns of the expedition, will Baroja send them off in pursuit ...?