Steve-Calvert.co.uk
Steve-Calvert.co.uk
A Passion For Horror
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When Simon Aron becomes involved with the wrong crowd it is up to his friends Rex van Ryn and the Duke de Richleau to save him. This is easier said than done though because the crowd that Simon has fallen in with happen to be a coven of Satanists and the two men have to resort to desperate measures to save him; the Duke knocks his friend out cold and he and Rex rush out of the house and carry Simon to their car. The Duke is a very level-headed man but before too many pages have been turned it becomes apparent that he has hidden depths and is quite an expert on the occult. Rex, however, does not believe in witchcraft or black magic. In fact he finds the Duke's actions a little over the top and has only gone along with him because they have been through so much together in the past that he has learned to trust his judgement. But black magic? In 1930s England? No one believes in that mumbo-jumbo anymore and he can hardly believe the things that his friend is saying to him. It isn't long, though, before Rex is forced into believing them. It isn't easy to doubt the evidence of his own eyes and he witnesses some things that defy logical explanation. The man who has bewitched Simon is called Mocata. He is a very powerful magician and he needed Simon to be part of a very important ceremony that was to take place on the night that the Duke and Rex intervened. Simon's birth date is very specific to Mocata's needs, it is impossible for Mocata to replace him, and he needs to get him back. He gets him back too, and the Duke and Rex are forced to play the detective to find their friend again. They also have a race against time on their hands because once Simon has been baptized at the Black Mass it will be too late for him and he will be lost forever. The Devil Rides Out is the first Dennis Wheatley novel that I have read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The friendship of the three main characters in the story is an essential ingredient of this particular cake and Simon is not a bad egg he just got mixed in with the wrong people and got in over his head. There is also a rather interesting sub-plot to the story, involving a tall and graceful beauty called Tanith. Rex falls head over heels in love with her and you will probably not be surprised to learn that she becomes a key player in the story. Rex's love seems to be doomed from the start though, because Tanith tells him that she has not got long to live. There are some interesting characters in The Devil Rides Out and although the book does have its darker moments, it also has some rather humorous scenes as well. For instance, on the second occasion that the Duke and Rex rescue Simon he is naked and they are forced to dress him in whatever they can get their hands on. With only a sporting goods shop open for them to outfit the lad from, Simon's dress is colourful to say the least. The Devil Rides Out is 320 pages long and it not a blood and gore fest and neither is it filled with graphic descriptions of Satanic orgies. If those are the kind of things that you expect from your occult fiction, then I am afraid that this book is not going to be the one for you. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a well crafted, researched and entertaining read, that might cause a few goose bumps and force you to sleep with the light on, then you might very well enjoy the strange, dark journey that this book will take you on. |
