The reader of this audio-version of the story has a superb voice for such a dark tale.
Howard’s creeping evocation of the deep darkness of the Southern Pinelands is powerful. Did the two Negro storytellers of his childhood—both women—inculcate this sense into him as a place of dark secrets and despair, being the place of their bondage or did he have his own independent sense born of something deeper. The choice of a female reader for this story was eerily ideal.
Kirby Buckner, protagonist of the Pinewoods horror Novelette Black Canaan, appears as a supporting character in this story, which stamped this tale with Howard’s trademark in the genre, a man of action. More weakly written tales—meaning most of them—require a character like the protagonist Griswell to be left alone against the terror of the unknown and the evils clawing up out of the past. But the presence of a fighting man, like Sheriff Buckner, permits a closer view of those fearful things underpinning the story.
Joan, the MÕ½latto servant girl abused by her mistress, might have been based on Howard’s own nanny. The voodoo man, Jacob, is a reoccurring figure, squatting above the dark secrets of the swamp gods. Howard had many gifts as a horror writer, with his ability to conjure a sense of greater antiquity than Man can fathom being one of these.
The best phrase of Pigeons from Hell is “…this continent that fools call young.”
Below find the audio-book link and also a link to another review.
