Black Magic

A classic of the horror genre, Dennis Wheatley’s The Devil Rides Out pits the powers of good against the forces of evil as the Duc de Richelieu wrestles for the soul of his friend with the charming but deadly Satanist, Mocata. Mocata has the power to summon the forces of darkness and - as the Duc and his friends will find - is willing to call upon ever-increasing horror until thundering hooves herald the arrival of the Devil Himself.

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 was trying to get in at the bedroom window. A huge malevolent Something. Something not of this world. Inside, Toby thought first that he was hallucinating, then that he must be going mad, finally that this evil Something was real and striving to reach him.

A businessman makes a deal with a satanic clergymen, and has his daughter baptised into Satan's church. Twenty-one years later, provided she is still a virgin, she is destined to be the centrepiece of a hideous satanic ritual. Molly Fountain, a tough-minded Englishwoman who worked for the British Intelligence during the war, has retreated to her French cottage to write. Next door she finds a new, mysterious neighbour, an intriguing young girl named Christina.

With Sir Gifford Hillary and Wing Commander Johnny Norton involved in plans to counter the might of Soviet Russia, interest soon centres on the evil Lady Ankaret and the tragedy which occurred at Longshot Hall, South Hampshire, on the night of the 9th September. A victim is struck down, and from that moment onwards the events which follow seem, at first, fantastic and unbelievable–but are later realised to be entirely logical. What does happen after death? And why should Sir Gifford find himself in prison, on trial for his life?