Whole lot of black magic going on

I have recently finished Dennis Wheatley’s The Satanist and it is an interesting book in concept. As I am a huge fan of Hammer Horror films and therefore I have seen the film adaptions of some of the novels. So I was curious to how the novels were. I chose The Satanist as I did not want to read one that I had already seen and I was hoping the book does “exactly what it says on the tin!” The plot of the Satanist is following the double lives led by a young male and female to penetrate a Satanic group. Barney Sullivan is a secret agent, who is horrified by the death of a colleague who had managed to penetrate the Satanic group, which also seems to have connects to Communism. Mary Morden, the wife of the killed colleague is also searching for the people who killed her husband. A woman who has had to put her morals aside for the greater good before and is willing to do it again to catch her husband’s devil worshiping killers. The main problem with this book is the unnecessarily complicated storyline by having both the devil worshiping and Communism plots running along side each other. Sometimes novels are “of their time”, meaning that they are awash with racist and sexist views. If the novel is well written you can forgive such things, but The Satanist is not well written.

Saying that Wheatley lingers over the Satanic rituals which is well researched and are so detailed that they have the intended result, they are creepy. This lengthy description is also used to describe how Communism has infiltrated the Unions and ruining Britain. This feels like the author was trying to tell me what my views should be. Mary’s story and character was the only reason I read it to the end. It is her thought process of the sexual aspect of the rituals and the dawning realisation that when her husband had inflitarted the group he would have to have indulged in those orgies. She is a brave and rounded character. However, this book has meant that I do not want to read the other Dennis Wheatley book I bought at the same time “To the Devil a Daughter”. I am hoping that when I do read that one it is going to be a lot better written, as it has been turned into a film it has a bit more hope.