Kenneth Rayner Johnson – The Succubus

Kenneth Rayner Johnson – The Succubus (Nel 1980, originally Blond & Briggs, 1979)

Blurb:

WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING TO ME?

In a London flat a young man has gone to ground. Hiding out until the storm of public interest in a bizarre sex-and-kidnap court case blows over.

But in the night, he is visited by something at once irresistible and terrifying.

In the night comes a creature in the form of the most desirable of women to possess him until the very last pang of lust is slaked. Panic-stricken friends, brilliant psychiatrists, and one dead-end psychic researcher hold the ring as modern medicine confronts the essence of evil.

Bari Wood – The Tribe

Bari Wood – The Tribe  (NEL, Oct. 1982)

Blurb:
Hut 554 in Belzec Extermination Camp was different. The inmates were alive.
Shabby, pale, but in good health and well-stocked with food – official supplies that were better than even the German Army had by 1945.

But amongst the horror of the camp and the relief that some at least had sur­vived, one man noticed something strange about the Jews of Hut 554: a fine greyish dust that coated the interior and clung to their clothing. A small mystery that could be part of the big mystery: why had this one small group been kept carefully alive?
Thirty-five years later, in Brooklyn, police burst into the basement hideout -of a teenage gang. This time the in­mates were dead. Brutally killed, bat­tered to death and torn limb from limb. And again, amongst the bloodbath, something strange: a fine greyish dust, scattered and clinging to the bodies.

” . . an ultra-readable story of occult sus­pense.’    Daily Mirror

Marc Marais – Duel For A Dark Angel

Marc Marais – Duel For A Dark Angel   (NEL, April 1976 )

Blurb
A wave of sickening murders hits the streets of Paris. The bodies of beautiful women are being found, almost casually, in rivers or up back alleys, by passers-by. The corpses have been killed and mutilated with a brutality that rivals Jack the Ripper. Claude Delorme, of the special branch of Paris Sûret, faces growing pressure to solve these crimes as panic mounts daily among the Parisians.

But he is faced by a baffling lack of clues and suspects. After many false starts and near disaster he at last stumbles upon what seems to be the trail, yet it leads him to the twilight world of the supernatural. Those who dabble with the Occult he finds, are now playing with human lives. Against the shadow of menace that threatens not only Delorme, but the whole of Paris, police methods are useless. It can only be dealt with on its own terms.

Thanks to Sara of the very beautiful My Love Haunted Heart blog for providing cover scan, blurb and a super review.

Daniel Rhodes – Adversary

Daniel Rhodes – Adversary (New English Library, 1989)

Blurb:

Daniel Rhodes presents us with  something more than a horror novel, skilfully blending centuries-old black magic into a modern setting.
In NEXT, AFTER LUCIFER, the undead spirit of Guilhelm de Courdeval, a medieval French Templar rumoured to have sold his soul to Satan, rose from centuries of imprisonment to possess an American college professor who probed too deeply into the legend of Courdeval’s occult powers and evil deeds.
Now, in ADVERSARY Courdeval resurfaces in San Francisco and resumes his career in the service of the Adversary, the enemy of mankind. Posing as a spiritual teacher, he extends his influence over four young Americans who all want something just beyond their reach. Lawyer Nicole Patrick is attractive and single – but the man she loves treats her like a sister. Spencer Epps has a sexy mistress and a rich father-in-law – but he’s been dipping into the till to support his illicit love life and cocaine habit, and things are closing in on him. Charity Haverill wants revenge on a lover who jilted her. And Robbie Kinsella is hungry for knowledge of the occult.

By offering seemingly harmless fulfilment of these desires, Courdeval elaborately seduces his “students” into joining him in the service of evil — until they find out, too late, the price they must pay for what they have received.

Meanwhile, Courdeval plays a sinister cat and mouse game with the only people who know the truth of his origin: the French priest Etien Boudrie and the housewife Melusine Devarre, gifted with second sight.

ADVERSARY is a chilling tale of desperation, revenge, and black magic.

Richard Harrington – Hellfire Today

Richard Harrington – Hellfire Today (New English Library, 1972)

“The Hell-Fire Club was an aristocratic temple of debauchery broken up in 1770. Lord Stoneham revives it in the twentieth century to further his business plans. But is the old Club really dead?”

Thanks to Steve Goodwin for providing the blurb