"I don't like any of it. He's either being prevented from going home by force . . . or else he'll never go home again."

'Lefty' Donovan, a boxer, leaves home after receiving a mysterious offer that seems too good to be true - and is never seen again. His wife, Flora, approaches Anthony Bathurst to look for her husband, but he fears the worst, especially when he discovers another fighter who had vanished in identical circumstances weeks earlier.

As time ticks down to a crucial bout, a body is found, suffering from terrible clawed lacerations, with a mysterious footprint nearby. The work of a mythical beast? The truth is that Bathurst finds himself up against an enemy even more monstrous . . .

They Never Came Back was first published in 1940.