The Hills of the Dead, a Solomon Kane story, was published in Weird Tales in August 1930, for which Howard received $70. In Africa, Kane again encounters N’Longa, the witch doctor introduced in Red Shadows, who gives him the protective Staff of Solomon before Kane enters a region haunted by vampires.

Howard mentioned the story in a May 24, 1932 letter to H. P. Lovecraft while discussing a correspondent named Olson, who had earlier written favorably about The Hills of the Dead.