Review: Horror Story: "Werewolf of the Sahara" by G. G. Pendarves

Tweet

Dale Fleming is traveling with his ward and younger cousin, Merle Anthony to the Siwa Oasis along with their guide, the Icelander Gunnar Sven. Actually, at the moment, they’re camped outside a little town called Sollum on the Libyan coast of North Africa, waiting. Merle paints. At least, that’s their pretension for going to Siwa. Dale is not as stupid as he looks, however. He knows that Merle and Gunnar are sweet on each other. They are, in fact, in love. Something’s off about Gunnar, though. He can’t quite put his finger on it. The local Arabs sense it was well. Gunnar never talks about his former employer who was one of the local Arabs, a sheik of some sort. (Author Pendarves spells it “sheykh.”). Just as they’re getting ready to leave, the sheikh, Zura El Shabur, Zura of the Mist, appears. He refers to Gunnar as “my servant.” Seems he has business in Siwa and deigns to join the cousins. Gunnar is beside himself with anxiety. The sheikh warns Gunnar a cabalist can never leave the path. He can never be free. But once he’s set his sights one Merle, Gunnar has to act. And once Merle knows Gunnar is somehow threatened by this sheikh, she has to act. And Dale, once again, is not as stupid as he looks. He a student of occult studies. This ends with a bit of flash, bang, and fireworks, with the bad guy getting his hind end chewed by karma. While this may be minor, it left me a little uneasy. This is the third story I’ve read by this author now. Each of them is set in some exotic Middle Eastern locale and each of them involves some sadistic Arab magician. Most of the other Arabs are placeholders. Not that non-Westerns must be saints, but they should be human beings from time to time. I could find no bio info to speak of for this author, though “Tellers of Weird Tales” (about those who wrote for Weird Tales) has a good write up on the tidbits. It noted she was a piano teacher. _____ Title: “Werewolf of the Sahara” Author: G. G..Pendarves (1885-1938) First published: Weird Tales August/September 1936 Source: ISFDB