Jack D. Shackleford - The Strickland Demon (Gorgi, 1977, 141 p.)
Cover Chris Achilleos
This seems to be the second of Jack D. Shacklefords novels, at least the second Gorgi published.
The plot is rather straightforward. Mark Strickland brings his newly married wife Shirley to his ancestral home Spinneys, which he just inherited. Shirley falls in love with the old mansion, and after hearing that there is a secret involved with the place and the familiy, she keeps pestering her husband to unveil it.
Seems every male of the familiy has to do some rites at certain dates, and the secret is only given from father to son. Unfortunatley Marks father died before he could do it, and Mark is clueless.
Cue some things go bump in the night, after the expected shagging of the newlyweds.
They seek help by the solicitor Murdoch, an old friend of the family – why are these solicitors always friends of the family in these kind of books? -, and as fast than you can say devil it is clear that the Stricklands made a pact with a demon back then just to keep the mansion in the family, and if they don´t perform a special ritual the demon will go on a bloody rampage.
Enter the good witch Nita which helps the Stricklands. Nita of course does her rituals naked, and after some bits right out of Dennis Wheatley – the often copied library scene out of The Devil Rides Out, you know the drill, scrubbing the library, drawing magic circles on the boards, naughty things appearing and hypnotising the in-circled to do naughty things and don´t you
ever pass the circle or your soul is lost in damnation – there is much detailed ritual good magic to conquer the demon, including some group sex where even old solicitor Murdoch gets lucky.
Don´t want to spoil the end, let´s suffice to say love conquers all.
Back in it´s day I guess that must have been a really exciting read with all the sex-magic, but read with todays standard – I know, always a dangerous path – it is a rather so-so novel with a not very original plot.
It concentrates too much on the ritual magic aspect and the sex, while the actual conflict – the haunting of Spinneys – never seem to get of the ground. There is not just a lot of drama, and if you want some blood in your demonic tale, you will be disappointed. And the ending doesn´t work well imho.
I guess the novels biggest fault is the approach to incorporate a realistic and unsensational portrayal of modern witchcraft in a story which depends more on shock tactics and atmosphere to work.
That is not to say that the book doesn´t has any merits. It is an interesting entry in the occult novel, even if in this cynical age most of the magic stuff is kind of funny in the wanna-blessed-bes kind of sense. Judged on its own, Shacklefords other novels like Tanith or Eve of Midsummer are much betters reads.
