The Vampire Cameo - a Lancer Books Gothic

I finally come to a gothic novel that deals more directly with the supernatural than any of the gothics I have read to date - in this case, vampires.  While many gothic stories hint at supernatural elements, they are normally explained away by the end of the book as some villainous machinations of a devious man (or woman) out to destroy lives, gain a family fortune, or for some other nefarious reason.  Not in this case.  As the title clearly indicates, this story is about vampires - the blood-sucking, eternal creatures of the night that roam the countryside looking for victims.  Or is it?  Author Dorothea Nile (who, in actuality, is Michael Avallone, a rather prolific and talented writer who published books in a number of genres under quite a few pseudonyms - besides this one, he also wrote gothics using the names Edwina Noone and Priscilla Dalton) is quite cunning in the way she (he) tells this story, leaving the reader, and the story's protagonist, wondering right up to the very end!

 

The Vampire Cameo is set right at the turn of the 20th Century, in the year 1899.  Young Rosalie Lindquist, an American schoolteacher vacationing in Europe, is on the last leg of her journey when fate intervenes.  The coach in which she is riding overturns in the Transylvania countryside during a horrific storm, leaving her stranded without any luggage, money, or means to reach the Austrian border.  A mysterious man happens to be there, offering her sanctuary within the darkened halls of his crumbling home - Darkus Castle!  (That name alone is enough to conjure up demons and all sorts of other horrors!)  Count Alexander Darkus and his wife, Lady Carmela Darkus, are gracious hosts - but from the very moment Rosalie sets foot in the decaying castle, she can feel something is off.  As the storm strengthens and the darkness descends, Rosalie - and the reader! - must determine if someone in that castle is a vampire, and if so, who is it?

 

The people in the nearby town of Larksmore wholeheartedly believe that Count Darkus is a vampire.  He certainly fits the part, what with his dark, brooding manner, his dark hair and fair skin, and his old ways.  But Rosalie has seen him in the day time, so surely that would discredit any thought of him being a creature of the night, right?  However, Rosalie has also noticed that Castle Darkus is completely devoid of mirrors in any of the rooms, including her own guest room.  Could it be he wants to hide the fact that he casts no reflection?  And what about that huge bat that tries ferociously to break through the window into Rosalie's room the first night she is there?  Was it pure chance, or was it Count Darkus knowing exactly which room she would be in?

 

Rosalie cannot quite believe the handsome Count is a vampire.  After all, vampires are simply creatures of myth.  No God-fearing young woman would believe such fantastical things exist.  Yet, she cannot deny the facts in front of her.  She does not see Lady Darkus in the day - she's suffering from a headache, the Count informs her.  The Lady also reacts in terror at the sight of Rosalie's crucifix pendant.  Only a vampire would react in such a way, correct?  Yet, Count Darkus explains that his wife lost her parents in a horrific accident, and the silver crucifix her mother was wearing at the time of her death has inspired fear of crosses ever since.  A simple, logical explanation, no doubt.  But Rosalie has her doubts.  Although the next morning shines brights, and Rosalie is ready to put it all behind her and return home - until the carriage she is in meets up with an angry mob of townspeople who are out for blood.  Three young girls have disappeared, and they believe Count Darkus stole them away.  Unable to pass, Rosalie is forced back to the castle, back to the dark recesses of the morbid place, back to where all her fears are once again brought to the forefront.

 

The story takes place over the course of just three or four days, yet, Nile (Avallone) manages to build up considerable suspense and fear within 180-plus pages.  Poor Rosalie fights to rely on her faith in God and her own common sense to tell her that there are no such things as vampires.  But the things she sees and the people right in front of her are making her question everything she has ever believed.  What if one of them were a vampire?  What if one of them really did take those three village girls?  And what if one of them intended to make her their next victim?  Another horrific storm rocks the great castle, and the irate villagers show up at the castle's door, ready to take matters into their own hands, with wooden stakes and mallets, to find their missing daughters. Rosalie is forced to make a choice, knowing she could very well be killed right along with Count Darkus and his wife, and ultimately, a very dark secret is revealed about the inhabitants of Castle Darkus that opens everyone's eyes!

 

Oh, and yes, there is also the very large Mondro, the Count's right hand man (and the only staff in the entire castle).  He is a unique individual, being described as both deaf and dumb, a turn of words that the Count describes as "a shameful expression" (p. 85).  What is interesting is that Count Darkus apparently knows sign language, as he uses it ("a curious hand and finger sequence of motion") to communicate with Mondro (p. 85).  This is now the second book in recent weeks that I have read where one of the main characters is familiar with sign language (the other being The Secret at Lone Tree Cottage, a Dana Girls mystery where one of the sisters uses sign language to try and communicate with their teacher who is being held captive).  It is funny how I have gone years without reading any books that mention deafness or sign language, but now in the span of a couple of weeks, I have read two with it!

 

And speaking of Mondro being deaf and dumb, I have to wonder if Nile forgot that fact for a moment later in the story.  Much later, when Mondro starts to attack Rosalie, a shout from Count Darkus stops Mondro in his tracks, causing him to release Rosalie and turn to fight his master.(pp. 129-30).  Why would the Count's shout affect Mondro, if the man is deaf and cannot hear?  Even though Mondro is said in the story to have lip-reading skill, being able to lip read would not help him hear the Count shouting.  It might have been more realistic to have the Count come up behind Mondro, pull him off, and throw him to the other side of the hall - that would certainly have created a more dramatic entrance for the Count.  In any event, such a snafu does not detract from the overall enjoyment of the story.

 

I am not sure who provided the cover art for this book, but I will say that it comes across more like for for a comic book rather than art for the cover of a book.  Rosalie holding the candle, Count Darkus seeming to appear within the swirling fog approaching the young woman, and the foreboding castle one can barely see against that black night sky.  It certainly sets the creepy tone of the story inside, and definitely gives the reader a sense that the vampire is about ready to attack.  Having been published in 1968, two years after the Dark Shadows television show first premiered and just one year after the vampire, Barnabas Collins, made his first appearance, the book and its cover art may well have been inspired by the popularity of the "sympathetic vampire" that was now so popular.

 

I did learn a new word while reading this book.  A number of times, Nile (Avallone) refers to Count Darkus' carriage as a "phaeton."  I have honestly never seen that word before in my life, so I looked it up.  Apparently, a phaeton can refer to several things:  in Green mythology, he is the mortal son of the sun god Helios; in more recent times, it is an open-top car (such as a Volkswagen luxury sedan); but a century or more ago, it referred to a four-wheeled carriage without doors, popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. So, instead of simply calling it a carriage, Nile (Avallone) uses the term "phaeton" through the entire book.  Just goes to show, you can learn something new every day!

 

Finally, for those wondering about the title - yes, there is a cameo pin that plays a very important part of the story and ultimately leads to the final revelation of what is really going on and who is the vampire of the story.  And if you think you know, let me just say - think again!

 

RATING:   10 harpsichords softly playing out of 10 for a suspenseful, terror-filled story of vampires, hate-filled villagers, and a young heroine who stands firm in her faith and courage!

The Gothic Romance Wave: A Critical History of the Mass Market Novels, 1960-1993

Ever since I was first introduced to Dark Shadows by my mother when reruns aired in the early '80s, I have been fascinated by the gothic genre.  Perhaps it was my early days of reading the Nancy Drew mysteries that gave me a hint of that genre (what with the haunted mansions, the dark and foreboding atmosphere, and the female protagonist determined to solve the mystery) and whetted my appetite for more.  Whatever the reason, I fell in love with this whole idea of an innocent young girl being thrust into a dark world of mystery and the unknown, forced to gather her wits and strength to face the dangers before her and navigate the labyrinth of lies surrounding her.  As I got older, I began to look beyond those children's series (although, admittedly, I still read and collect those as well) and search for adult gothic tales with darker, and sometimes more "real" supernatural elements.  Authors like Dan Ross (under a variety of pseudonyms such as Marilyn Ross, Clarissa Ross, W.E.B. Ross, and others), Phyllis A. Whitney, Willo Davis Roberts, and others began to attract my attention, and I started picking up and reading these adults novels - and found myself enthralled.  What surprised me, though, is the lack of reference material for these novels that seemed to boom in the 1960s and '70s.  Until I cam across this book.

The Gothic Romance Wave is a study written by Lori A. Paige that takes a literary look at the mass market paperback gothic novels that were published from 1960 through 1993 (and, honestly, I hadn't realized they continued into the '90s - I had always assumed they pretty much died out by 1980 or so).  Paige, who is a professor at American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts, takes an in-depth look at pretty much every aspect of the era - the authors, the publishers, the covers (and oh, how I love those covers!), the characters, the plots, and the history of the genre itself.  This was definitely what I wanted to know more about!  I mean, I took a class on Gothic literature when I was in college, but it was focused on the late 18th Century and early 19th Century works, such as Walpole's Castle of Otranto and Lewis' The Monk, as well as more recognizable works, such as Dracula and Frankenstein.  We never touched on more modern gothic tales.  So, I was thrilled when I came across Paige's book on Amazon.

I learned considerably more about the genre and the period of publication that I never knew, and it has only increased my desire to delve further into these novels.  Yes, Paige does address the 18th/19th Century beginnings of the genre, but she quickly jumps into that explosion of gothic novels in the 1960s and '70s, when the market was flooded with paperbacks that depicted a young woman, usually in a loose, flowing gown, running in the night ... a dark castle in the background, usually with a light glowing faintly in one of the windows ... sometimes the shadowy figure of a man back in the distance.  Let's face it, we've all seen those covers, and quite honestly, I have joked over the years about how easy it is to spot a "gothic" romance novel, simply by the cover.  Little did I realize how much truth there was to that!  Paige discusses the possible reasons for those similarity in covers, and how they drew the intended audience into buying the books.  I had never realized just how much the market was flooded with these books back in the day (while I was not alive in the '60s, I was around in the '70s for a bit....), and to consider now just how much the various publishers were competing for sales.  In a way, it reminds me of what happened in the movies after the first Star Wars film hit it big - suddenly, the movies were filled with space films of all kinds, trying to compete and cash in on the success of that one film.  

But Paige goes further and looks at what it was that drew readers (mostly women) into these books.  She discusses how, despite critics thoughts to the contrary, the female protagonists were not insipid young women who put themselves into danger and needed men to rescue them; rather, in most of these gothic tales, the young ingenue manages to not only overcome her own fears and self-doubt, but she manages to tame the raging lord of the manor, reveal the identity of the true evil (usually a wolf in sheep's clothing), and cleanse the great house and thee family of its curse (whether figurative or literal).  And reading Paige's analysis made me realize just how right she is!  These young women may seem naive at first (such as Victoria Winters when she first arrives at Collinwood in Dark Shadows), but by the end of the book, they are always the ones who have overcome all of the adversity and brought everyone to the peace and happiness they have been searching for all this time.  

 

But, and this is likely the most important point Paige makes in the book (as far as I'm concerned) - these books were not intended to be critiques on the human condition, nor were they written with the intent to convincing women to be subservient to their husbands or to believe the only way to find happiness in this world is to find a man who will rescue you and marry you - no, these stories were written for two purposes - for the readers to enjoy a good story and for the publisher, and author by extension, to make money.  Pure and simple.  These were not intended to be educational treatises.  And that is where a lot of critics likely make their mistake when looking at these books.  Just like those who criticize comic books, or horror films, or other media forms - not every form of entertainment is there to improve, teach, or otherwise promote some form of betterment for humanity.  Rather, it is simply to "entertain,"as the word says.  And for me, these books definitely entertain.  

Something else I learned in this book is how many authors with whom I am familiar wrote gothic tales during this period (usually under pseudonyms).  I was well aware of Dan Ross and his plethora of names (because of my love of Dark Shadows); I have all of his Dark Shadows books written under "Marilyn Ross," plus several of his other titles under that same name.  I also have his Dark Harbour series written under "Clarissa Ross."  I have books by Phyllis A. Whitney, Willo Davis Roberts, Katheryn Kimbrough, Sharon Wagner, and others.  But I did not realize that authors like Dean Koontz and Michael Avallone also wrote gothic novels back during this time, under pseudonyms, of course.  While I'm not a fan of Koontz, I am a fan of Avallone's work, so I'm going to have to track down his gothic books to see how they fare.

I was surprised to find that Paige makes a rather large reference to Hester Jane Mundis' Mercy at the Manor Manor (my review of that book can be found at Mercy at the Manor Manor), which is a wonderful parody of the gothic romance novel of that time.  I don't think Paige found it as enjoyable as I did, but she did devote a little over two pages of the book to discussing this parody and how it was a part of this period of gothic.  I was also surprised at the several references to not only Nancy Drew (I mean, let's face it, how could she NOT be referenced when talking about gothic stories!), but also to Cherry Ames, who she references in connection with the "nursies" (nurse romance craze that pre-dated the gothic romance invasion of the '60s).

Like with any good thing, though, if you over saturate the market, it's going to eventually peter out, and that's what happened to the gothic craze (only much later than I originally thought).  As Paige points out, though, it didn't really end, as much as it evolved and diversified (so to speak).  The stories became more sexual in nature, and the supernatural elements became much more prevalent - instead of hints of supernatural that were explained away by the end, vampires, werewolves, and such became more real and more important to the plots.  Today, we have stories such as Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey that are riding the waves of success, with copycats trying to catch on as well.  And let's face it - everything has its place and time, and apparently, gothic romance had its time during the mid- to late-20th Century.  And for me, that's okay - because it gives me the joy of hunting down these novels and reading many of them for the first time now.  So, thank you, Lori A. Paige, for raising the level of my excitement for these books to a whole new level!

(The only thing I wish Paige had touched upon, is the male audience of those gothic novels back in the day.  Her book seems to focus on the female readership, which I suppose was the intended audience, but I have no doubt there was a male contingent as well, who probably enjoyed those stories as a guilty pleasure just as much as the women.  Or, is it perhaps, the male fans are only now coming into the picture, decades later, when it is no longer seen as simply a "woman's" form of literature? Hmmm.....)

RATING:  10 issues of the Gothic Journal out of 10 for taking a look at gothic romance fiction with entirely new eyes, and giving fans the justification that they so richly deserve!

The Satan Sleuth #3 - Devil, Devil

The third and final entry into The Satan Sleuth series of novels is probably the most gruesome of them all - and I'm not just referring to the blood and gore content.  This series, from the very beginning, has been one filled not only filled horrific acts of violence, but with psychological terror as well.  The criminals have been brutal and sadistic, and Philip St. George has been surprisingly creative and vicious when meting out justice to the perpetrators.  Author Michael Avallone definitely pays wonderful homage to those classic pulp tales of mystery, suspense, and horror of the past, rolling them all into one with each of the three books in this series.  It's just a shame this was the final book in the series (whether that was the author's choice or the publisher's choice, I have no idea), as The Satan Sleuth is some of the finest pulp fiction I've ever read.

Devil, Devil takes Philip St. George on a journey into the true depravity and duplicity of human nature.  It all starts with the beheaded bodies of young females being found throughout New York City, each body carved with markings of the devil.  The police are baffled, and only one FBI agent is willing to believe this is the work of a cult of devil worshipers.  St. George is on the outside of the whole thing until a reporter reaches out to him, revealing her own connection to the coven of thirteen men and women who have been performing hellish ceremonies and rituals for some time - all led by the alluring and bewitching Sister Sorrow.  She goes to St. George for help, but before she can reveal the location of the meetings, she mysteriously drops dead of cyanide poisoning - without any indication as to how!  Since the death of his wife, St. George has dedicated his life to eradicating evil in whatever form it takes, and he once again dons his Satan Sleuth persona to search out this Sister Sorrow and put an end to these ritualistic murders.

Due to the nature of this story, there is more sexual content (not actual sex mind you, but descriptions of the naked form), as the rituals are performed while the participants are naked, and even poor St. George, when he unwittingly has the tables turned on him and finds himself tied naked on a sacrificial altar.  Avallone's writing is provocative without being explicit, leaving much to the imagination, while at the same time making it very easy to picture the bodies, particularly those of Sister Sorrow and St. George (who, as can be assumed, has all the features of a god).  I do give Avallone credit for not being biased - he offers up male and female descriptions equally, which is rare, since most male authors focus more on the female form than the male.

In true pulp style, Avallone offers up the horror of the deaths ... the mystique of the rituals and alleged witchcraft ... the mystery of finding Sister Sorrow ... the action and adventure of stopping the Satanic cult ... and the sexuality of the men and women in the story.  Basically, everything that made pulps so popular in the early part of the 20th Century is present and accounted for in this one story, making is a real page-turner.  It's also an interesting commentary on society and people who are so easily led away by promises of power, beauty, and unrealistic dreams.  As the story reveals, the members of the cult are theatrical agents, newspaper men and women, architects, artists, magazine editor, engineers, actors, and other professional men and women.  These are not poor, confused people who think the cult will help them rise above their circumstances - these are people who have already reached an apex in their lives and still want more, no matter the cost.  Definitely a level of truth to that in the real world, that's for sure...

A well-written, captivating story that ends with a statement I think anyone who reads this series can agree with - Philip St. George was alive.  Long live the Satan Sleuth!  (Hmmmm, this would make a great comic book series for Dynamite Entertainment, who publishes such comics as Vampirella, Ash vs. the Army of the Dead, James Bond, and other titles that are so similar in theme and genre ... someone needs to suggest it to them!)

RATING:  9 penthouse balconies perfect for cult ceremonies out of 10 for a terrifying tale of just how depraved mankind really can be!

The Satan Sleuth #2 - The Werewolf Walks Tonight

In the forest ... the moonlit forest ... the werewolf walks tonight ...

Okay, yeah, so when I read the title to this book, I couldn't help but fit the words into the song made famous by The Token.  But there is definitely nothing lighthearted about this book.  As with the first book in this series by Michael Avallone, the story is very dark, very violent, and very steeped in the depravity of mankind.  One has to wonder where Avallone gets his inspiration for stories such as this - did he just have a very vivid imagination, or did he see the depravity of man in the real world and simply tweak it a bit for his novels to fit the story he was writing?  Whatever the case, these Satan Sleuth books are definitely not for the faint-hearted!

The Werewolf Walks Tonight deals with exactly that - a werewolf.  Or, at least, a creature that the people of the small town of Fletcherville can't help but think is a werewolf.  With four extremely gruesome deaths, the victims' throats savage torn out, the entire town is frightened.  And the disappearance of one young woman, Helen Trick, only makes matters worse.  The sheriff thinks Helen simply took off with a man, but Philip St. George - the man otherwise known as The Satan Sleuth - believes the woman's disappearance is connected with the vicious murders.  He also does not believe the attacks are that of some supernatural lycanthrope; whatever it is, St. George firmly believes the thing committing these atrocious crimes is human, in some form, and must be stopped at all costs.

So, St. George leaves his life of luxury in New York and makes his way to the rural town of Fletcherville on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee - a town that time, and the two states, has basically forgotten, leaving its citizens to their own devices.  Donning the disguise of a mild-mannered medical supply salesman, St. George shows up in town to begin his investigation and his hunt for this disciple of Satan.  Deacon Williams, the first victim and the town's only pastor, was found down by a small river, hanging upside down from a juniper tree.  And it's with that first victim, and at that first murder site, that St. George begins his search.  He discovers a water-soaked Bible at the bottom of the river, and on the inside front cover, he finds a terrifying message that warns of the danger and deceit let loose upon the town.  The banker, the drifter, and college drop-out were all victim of circumstance, and the store owner and his son, later victims, were in the wrong place at the wrong time, hunting something they were not prepared to face.  But after hunting down the killers of his wife in the last book, St. George is prepared for anything.  Or so he believes.

Avallone takes readers on a rather slow journey through Fletcherville - through the hearts and fears of its citizens, as well as through the methodical and cunning plans of his Satan Sleuth.  Avallone does become repetitive somewhat with his constant questioning and philosophizing about the potential supernatural existence of the werewolf, something he also did in the first book with the rationalization of the cult members and their desire for power through the evils of Satan.  There are moments where I wish the action would move faster, but Avalloen takes his time with building up the suspense and the ultimate revelation regarding the creature of the night terrorizing Fletcherville.  It does all lead up to a deadly battle for survival at the end, and the one who ultimately brings down the evil atrocity is not who you would expect!  Avallone manages to keep some of the secrets in the story close to his chest, so when they are revealed at the end, they come as much more of a surprise.

 

One aspect of the story that I enjoyed was the setting.  Being from Kentucky, it's always nice to read a book set in my home state, even if somewhat tangentially.  Avallone even makes a short reference to a case of mail fraud in Louisville (my home city!) that the FBI believes more important than reports of a werewolf running around Fletcherville (p. 62).  There's also the scene where St. George is talking with his landlady, trying to explain his reasons for believing the attacks were not the work of a werewolf, but of a very human man, and she responds with, "What's that got to do with the price of eggs..?" (p. 102).  This is a phrase I have often used, and still use today, when someone talks about something that has absolutely no relation to the discussion we are having - perhaps it is a Kentucky/Tennessee saying?

 

With two books read, only one left to go in this great little series...

 

RATING:  9 silver-painted bullets out of 10 for terror, horror, and supernatural all mixed into one story that will really make you think hard about just how humane humanity really is!

The Satan Sleuth #1 - Fallen Angel

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover - but in this instance, I'm asking you to not judge a book by its name.  I honestly cannot say how I came across this series.  I don't recall where I first saw it, or what made me look into it; all I know is that once I decided to try and find this series, I was surprised at just how difficult it was to locate all three books!  One would think this is some best-selling rarity that everyone is after (although, more likely, it was simply a series with a low print run, thus making copies harder to find).  After a lot of searching, I was able to locate books 2 and 3, but finding the first book took a lot longer.  But, as always, patience offers its reward, and I came across a copy in fairly good condition on eBay for a price I was willing to pay.  So, once in hand, I figured I might as well read it and see whether it was worth the purchase.

"The Satan Sleuth" is a three-book series written by Michael Avallone.  Avallone was a prolific author who wrote a number of movie and television tie-in books, one of which is a book I would LOVE to find - the original novelization of Friday the 13th Part 3 in 3-D (not the later, revised edition written by Simon Hawke).  Published in 1974 and 1975, "The Satan Sleuth" tells the adventures of Philip St. George, whose wife is brutally mutilated and dismembered by a cult of Satan worshipers - which leads to St. George adopting an alternate persona to not only go after the group of individuals who killed his wife, but to begin a crusade against any and all like-minded people who choose to use Satan, the supernatural, and the unknown as a shield behind which to commit the most heinous atrocities against mankind.  This first novel, Fallen Angel, provides readers with the gory details of just what led St. George to abandon his carefree, millionaire lifestyle to don a cloak, wear a cross, and take up the weapons needed to send the sick, twisted minds of cultists and Satan worshipers to the very hell they claim to serve.

The prose is very much pulp style, with little dialogue and more focus on the characters inner-motivations and their actions.  It is definitely dark and morbid, and while Avallone does not go into explicit gory detail with the ritualistic murder of St. George's wife, the description he does provide is more than enough to create horrific images in the reader's mind - enough to make him or her immediately sympathize with St. George and encourage him on his newfound crusade.  Definitely not for the weak of heart!  Yet, at the same time, without the horrific nature of the crime, St. George's motivation would be lacking.

The book is divided into three subtitled parts - "Fallen Angel," "Devils From Hell," and "The Redeemer."  Each section is basically an act - "Fallen Angel" describes the descent, of St. George learning about his wife's death - seeing it - and then making the decision to do what the police cannot.  "Devils From Hell" provides readers with a glimpse into the four killers - three men and one woman - and the consequences of their actions (for three of them, anyway).  "The Redeemer," the final act, is the climactic showdown between St. George a/k/a The Satan Sleuth and the Wolfman (not literal), the leader of the cult who took his wife from him.  I gotta give Avallone credit, he definitely knows how to use irony, as St. George picks off the killers one by one, putting them in the ultimate torturous situations, saving the best for last.  But the question is - how far is St. George really willing to go to avenge his wife?  Once he answers that question, it sets the stage for the rest of his life!

In a way, this is a much darker version of Dan Curtis' television series, Kolchak: The Night Stalker.  And what's interesting about that is that the Kolchak TV show ran from 1974 to 1975, the same exact years this series was published. Makes you wonder exactly what was going on in American society at that time, that such dark, supernatural stories such as The Satan Sleuth and Kolchak would be written for consumption by the public at large!  Although neither series lasted long - Kolchak lasted one season, and The Satan Sleuth only lasted three books.  Perhaps the timing was off, because I could easily see The Satan Sleuth as a television series today, and it would likely do pretty good (particularly since today's television seems to allow much more graphic violence to be depicted than back in the mid-70s when the series was published).

"Fighting for reason and right against the Devil and his disciples" is what the tagline reads on the front of this first book.  And it's a pretty accurate description of what's inside, although the four killers turn out to be only playing at devil worship - none of them actually believe (which, in my mind, makes what they did all the more terrible, because it simply goes to show just how depraved and twisted their natural being is that they could do what they did for no other purpose than just for kicks!).  We'll see what the second and third book hold in store and whether The Satan Sleuth actually faces down true supernatural or the Devil himself!

RATING:  7 tarot cards left at the foot of the stairs out of 10 for providing fans of mystery, crime, and supernatural with a different kind of dark knight detective!