Cave and Shadows is a 1983[1] whodunit[2] and Martial Law era “metaphysical” thriller[3][4] novel written by Philippine National Artist Nick Joaquin.

It is a detective fiction that also deals with and arcane and historical cults involving beatas or “beatified women” (a group of religious lay women who were "repressed by a male-dominated, colonial order"[4]) and strange events occurring inside unfamiliar caves in the Metro Manila area.

[1] In this work, Joaquin interspersed historical facts and with fiction resulting to a mesh of “multi-layered meanings”.

[9] Coogan’s body was found naked inside a cave located within the suburban regions of Manila.

[4] The death by Coogan triggered a criminal investigation, truth searching,[1] collision of the past and the present, and the unhinging of reality.