The Black Magic Series Starter

Book excerpt: Read the first three novels in Dennis Wheatley's thrilling Black Magic series including The Devil Rides Out, Strange Conflict and The Haunting of Toby Jugg. If you've not yet read Dennis Wheatley, or wish to revisit three of his best known books, this series starter provides the perfect introduction to the complete Black Magic Series of eleven titles. The Black Magic series features one of Dennis Wheatley's best known characters, the Duke de Richleau, and deals with themes for which Wheatley is arguably most renowned, Satanism and the occult. In The Devil Rides Out, the aristocratic Duke de Richleau faces new, sinister challenges in this macabre tale of the dark arts. When his good friend Simon Aron's naïve curiosity is tested, the Duke, along with his ever-patient friends Rex Van Ryn and Richard Eaton, must intricately plot a means of both physical and spiritual rescue. But with Van Ryn's affections for a beautiful woman caught in the web of Satanists, and Eaton's ongoing scepticism, they all risk being brought to the verge of madness through dabbling with the powers of evil. Strange Conflict finds London at war. As the bombs fall, the elderly Duke de Richleau is forced to consider a problem of the utmost urgency. What methods are the Germans using to discover – with sinister effect – the secret routes of the Atlantic convoys? His answer is bizarre and fantastic. Could it really be that the enemy are in touch with supernatural powers? Can these powers only be overcome by those who have the knowledge and courage to join battle with them on the Astral Plane? The Haunting of Toby Jugg is a stirring psychological thriller adapted into the movie The Haunted Airman starring Robert Pattinson. Toby Jugg, a fighter pilot shot down in combat, is now confined to his bed with little hope of walking again. He is also the heir to a considerable fortune – a fortune that is being administered by a board of trustees until he comes of age. But night after night, out there in the moonlight, Something is trying to get in at the bedroom window. A huge malevolent Something. Something not of this world. Is Toby hallucinating? Or is Something real and evil striving to reach him. As one reviewer says, this is 'a masterclass in how to write suspense'.