Authors like Wheatley

[tfk]

Hey everyone,

I'm a big fan of Dennis Wheatley's Black Magic stories, and wonder what other books and authors I should check out that are similiar.

Any suggestions?

TFK

[dem bones]

i've not read anything quite like Wheatley's Black Magic novels - they kind of occupy a genre to themselves - but provided you can do without DW's rather rabid canvassing for the Tory Party and frequent reds=satanists-under-the-bed histrionics, the 'Peter Saxon' Guardians novels are not all that dissimilar. Gerald Suster, far more clued-in about matters occult than Wheatley, wrote some excellent Black Magic novels (The Scar, The Elect, The Devil's Maze, The Offering, etc) with the added bonus that you're not guaranteed a happy ending. Same goes for Eric Erickson and his 'seventies novels for New English Library, The Sorcerers, The Woman Who Slept With Demons & Co. actually, i see a DW influence in a number of the 'seventies NEL's, notably 'Raymond Giles's Night Of The Warlock and Night Of the Vampire and even 'Errol LeCale's The Specialist series, that that may just be me. Anyway, if you find copies of any of the above going for a snip at a car boot sale or whatever, you might like to give them a go.

[Dr Strange]

If you're not adverse to the "modern", then I can recommend Stephen Leather's Jack Nightingale trilogy - Nightfall (2010), Midnight (2011), and Nightmare (2012). There's a very strong Wheatley influence in terms of story elements (though not so much in writing style!) - he's got Satanists, pentagrams, actual materialization of demons, the works - and I also detect something of the Hellblazer comics. The basic premise is that ex-cop, now PI, Jack Nightingale discovers that his real father was a high-flying Satanist who sold Jack's soul to a demon. Now Jack has inherited his father's mansion, complete with collection of priceless grimoires and magickal paraphernalia, and he has to find a way to save his soul.

It ain't high literature - but it is highly entertaining. And don't think this is one of those "urban fantasy" series (Jim Butcher, Mike Carey, etc., etc.), where everyone accepts the existence of the occult and the world is chock-full of ghosts and demons - it definitely isn't that at all. The Jack Nightingale short story Cursed is available for free on Leather's website and elsewhere - so I figured there's no problem with me attaching a copy here to give a taster - though it doesn't really capture the most Wheatleyesque aspects of the books.

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