'Heartbreaking and breathtaking.' – Clive Barker, author of Hellraiser In 2012 Marc Heal stumbled across a yellowed newspaper cutting about Derry Knight: a man who claimed that he belonged to a secret Satanic group operating at the highest levels of British society. Helped by John Baker, vicar of the Sussex village of Newick, Knight had falsely raised large sums from wealthy gentry on the pretext of destroying powerful items of Satanic regalia. Heal threw away the cutting but it made him deeply uneasy. Why could he remember nothing about the Knight affair even though he had grown up at its epicentre? Why did he know so much about the people in the story and yet recalled so little about it? Finally, he faced up to the reason for the blank: the trial had taken place in the weeks immediately after the defining trauma of his life. In December 1985 an elder from his parents' evangelical Christian church attempted an exorcism on him believing he was possessed by demons. Based on extensive interviews with all the surviving witnesses this book explores the truth behind Derry Knight and the devastating effects that evangelical Christianity had on one young man.

'Heartbreaking and breathtaking.' – Clive Barker, author of Hellraiser In 2012 Marc Heal stumbled across a yellowed newspaper cutting about Derry Knight: a man who claimed that he belonged to a secret Satanic group operating at the highest levels of British society. Helped by John Baker, vicar of the Sussex village of Newick, Knight had falsely raised large sums from wealthy gentry on the pretext of destroying powerful items of Satanic regalia. Heal threw away the cutting but it made him deeply uneasy. Why could he remember nothing about the Knight affair even though he had grown up at its epicentre? Why did he know so much about the people in the story and yet recalled so little about it? Finally, he faced up to the reason for the blank: the trial had taken place in the weeks immediately after the defining trauma of his life. In December 1985 an elder from his parents' evangelical Christian church attempted an exorcism on him believing he was possessed by demons. Based on extensive interviews with all the surviving witnesses this book explores the truth behind Derry Knight and the devastating effects that evangelical Christianity had on one young man.

The stunning new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Age of Odin, in which the worlds of Arthur Conan Doyle and H.P. Lovecraft collide. It is the autumn of 1910, and for fifteen long years Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson have battled R'lluhloig, the Hidden Mind that was once Professor James Moriarty. Europe is creeping inexorably towards war, and a more cosmic conflict is nearing its zenith, as in a single night all the most eminent members of the Diogenes Club die horribly, seemingly by their own hands. Holmes suspects it is the handiwork of a German spy working for R'lluhloig, but his search for vengeance costs an old friend his life. The companions retreat to Holmes's farm on the Sussex Downs, and it is not long before a client comes calling. Three young women have disappeared from the nearby town of Newford, and the locals have no doubt who is responsible. For legend has it that strange amphibious creatures dwell in a city on the seabed, coming ashore every few centuries to take fresh captives. As Holmes and Watson seek out the terrifying interlopers, the scene is set for the final battle that will bring them face to face with the Sussex Sea-Devils, and perhaps with Cthulhu himself...

"More chills in its little length than in a whole shelf of bestsellers." - Stephen King "At once moral fable, cautionary ghost story and inspired attack on the whole hellbent drift of modern letters, this is a splendid tale, splendidly told, which Ford or Henry James would have been glad to have written." - Robert Nye, "Guardian" "Wry and insightful . . . toys with the notion of demonic possession but becomes a thoroughly realistic and highly original story of revenge; a chilling cautionary tale." - Elaine Kendall, "Los Angeles Times" "A brief return to the world of Faust, Mephistopheles and the Devil pact. Mr. Judd . . . achieves a deep polish." - Robert Grudin, "The New York Times Book Review" After Edward, a rising young author, pens a savage review of the new novel by the world-famous O.M. Tyrell, he is surprised to receive an invitation to visit the old man at his villa in the south of France. The night of their meeting, Tyrell dies, and soon after, Edward's career mysteriously starts to soar as he earns fame, fortune and critical acclaim. But despite his achievements, Edward seems haunted, even tormented. His friend, the narrator, begins to put together the pieces of the story: an ancient, inscrutable manuscript, a beautiful, ageless woman who attaches herself to any writer who possesses it, and a bargain to achieve success at a terrible price . . . Winner of Britain's prestigious Guardian Fiction Prize, Alan Judd's modern classic "The Devil's Own Work" (1991) is, as Owen King writes in the new introduction to this edition, "a perfect novel about the demonic possession that is literary ambition." This edition also features a new afterword by the author, in which he reveals the inspirations for this haunting tale.

In the course of its extraordinary history, the Jersey Devil has been exorcised, shot, electrocuted, declared officially dead, and scoffed as foolishness--none of which has had any effect on it or the people who persist in seeing it!This mysterious creature is said to prowl the lonely sand trails and mist-shrouded marshes of the Pine Barrens, and emerge perioducally to rampage through the towns and cities of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania, leaving many communities in near-hysteria.The authors show that while a few appearances have been out-right fraud and others have likely been the result of mass hysteria, this creature has been seen by enough sane, sober, and responsible citizens to keep the possiblity of its existence alive and tantalizing.Over 50,000 in print

Sidelined after a colleague's blunder, CIA agent Brooke Chandler envisions a way to halt an Al Qaeda plot to set off a massive nuclear explosion and begins a race against time that returns him to Lebanon, where nothing is quite as it seems.

Secrecy is a central and integral component of all religious traditions. Not limited simply to religious groups that engage in clandestine activities such as hidden rites of initiation or terrorism, secrecy is inherent in the very fabric of religion itself. Its importance has perhaps never been more acutely relevant than in our own historical moment. In the wake of 9/11 and other acts of religious violence, we see the rise of invasive national security states that target religious minorities and pose profound challenges to the ideals of privacy and religious freedom, accompanied by the resistance by many communities to such efforts. As such, questions of secrecy, privacy, surveillance, and security are among the most central and contested issues of twenty-first century religious life. The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Secrecy is the definitive reference source for the key topics, problems, and debates in this crucial field and is the first collection of its kind. Comprising twenty-nine chapters by a team of international contributors, the Handbook is divided into five parts: Configurations of Religious Secrecy: Conceptual and Comparative Frameworks Secrecy as Religious Practice Secrecy and the Politics of the Present Secrecy and Social Resistance Secrecy, Terrorism, and Surveillance. This cutting-edge volume discusses secrecy in relation to major categories of religious experience and individual religious practices while also examining the transformations of secrecy in the modern period, including the rise of fraternal orders, the ongoing wars on terror, the rise of far-right white supremacist groups, increasing concerns over religious freedom and privacy, the role of the internet in the spread and surveillance of such groups, and the resistance to surveillance by many indigenous and diasporic communities. The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Secrecy is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies, comparative religion, new religious movements, and religion and politics. It will be equally central to debates in the related disciplines of sociology, anthropology, political science, security studies and cultural studies.

Religion and Conspiracy Theories: An Introduction is the first accessible volume to systematically examine the relationship between religion and conspiracy theories in the contemporary world in critical and historical perspective. It lays out the historical development of these important categories, considers different theoretical approaches and looks at case studies of conspiracy theories in religion, about religion and as religion. It maintains a critical perspective throughout on the relationship between truth and power, and in the process provides a fresh perspective on belief and worldviews in our modern world. Designed for use in the classroom, the book features helpful diagrams and resources for teachers. It is an essential read for all students of religion and conspiracy theories, as well as scholars of politics, religious studies, sociology, anthropology and cultural studies.