Black Man with a Horn

Black Man with a Horn, by T. E. D. Klein, is a Cthulhu Mythos novella originally published in New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. Critic S. T. Joshi notes that the story demonstrates a 'deftness of style, a subtley in the build-up of a horrific climax, and a deep understanding of the psychological effects of horror.'[1]

Plot

In the story, an author—whose literary career has been in the shadow of H. P. Lovecraft and modeled after Lovecraft Circle member Frank Belknap Long[1]--becomes involved in a mystery after a chance encounter with a missionary while traveling. The missionary, traveling in disguise, is fleeing something he encountered while in Malaysia, and refers to the Chaucha. Later, while visiting a museum, the author comes across a reference to the Chaucha. The narrator realizes that the Chaucha are actually the Tcho-Tcho, which he had previously thought to be fictional construct of Lovecraft. Slowly, the narrator becomes threatened by a being the Tcho-Tcho worship: a black, fishlike humanoid demon—the Shogoran—with an appendage that resembles a horn attached to its face.

Publication history

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Icons of Horror and the Supernatural editor S. T. Joshi, Greenwood Press, 2006. p. 123