Satan’s Seed by Jory Sherman
Another novel from my ongoing quest to track down as many New English Library horror pulps NEL was a powerhouse of pulp fiction entertainment in the UK. It churned out hundreds of various genres, horror being massively popular in the late seventies and early eighties. As expected, some are good, some are bad and some are just plain awful.
Jory Sherman was a highly prolific author, writing around 400 titles. A friend and drinking companion of the infamous Charles Bukowski, Sherman began his career as a magazine editor and poet. A friend who owned a publishing company once asked him to write a novel, which did so well that he wrote five more in the same year. He became an award-winning author of Western novels, winning multiple Spur Awards and winning the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Contributions to Western Literature. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his novel Grass Kingdom.
I haven’t read Sherman’s Western novels, but he is highly respected within the genre. I can only presume that he wrote Satan’s Seed and the seven books in the Joe Chill series for quick cash — maybe he had a tax bill to pay. These books aren’t literary gems. However, they are an absolute classic, wacky pulp horror novels, complete with the requisite sex, violence, and the over-the-top 1970s obsession with Satanism.
The premise is that of the almost superhero-like Psychic investigator Professor Joesph Chillders ( Chill) He is a former marine, crack shot with a rifle, super intelligent, charming, and a vegan health nut ( it does give quite a few descriptions of his favorite salads!!) He’s a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Kolchack The Night Stalker. Along with his “special lady” (Chill’s words, not mine!) — the lovely psychic Laura Littlefawn — they’re called in to help solve potential supernatural horrors.
Each chapter is about 4–6 pages long, so this is not a long novel. The first chapter is the usual satanic soft porn sex scene to kick everything off. Then, onto Rancher Sam Hinton’s prize cattle are found slaughtered most horrifically. After seeing Chill on TV, he decides to call him, just as, the broken body of his young son is discovered.
So begins a tale of Someone among the Hinton family and friends consorting with Satan, a bloody black mass in an abandoned mine, a séance revealing ancient ghosts haunting the farm, more dead bodies violated in the worst ways, horse deaths, and the love Chill feels for Laura Littlefaun but does not know if he should tell her.
At times, the book reads like an Agatha Christie novel, with its many different characters all stuck in the same setting and all seem to have some secret or axe to grind. Chill and Littlefaun talk to various individuals and look into their backgrounds, discovering family secrets and hidden truths. It then bounces to a tale of the unrequited love of Chill and Littlefaun. Then in pops some animal murder, mutilated bodies and eventually gearing to discover who has had sex with Satan to start all the mayhem off. As the story thunders to the finale, we get an Omen-style end-of-the-world scenario.
This is a great example of a 70’s Satanic Panic novel. It has just about every cliché going on. It’s an absolute blast of hokum Satanism, witchcraft, and possession. Very much in the Denis Wheatley camp. The only problem I had was with Chill himself. As the main character of the series, he just got on my nerves the more I read. He’s so insufferably perfect I was almost hoping Satan would win out in the end!
Note on the cover. A fantastic illustration and the series follows the same design and title font throughout. This has to be the best one with a fantastic painting of Vincent Price from Dr Phibes. Not sure how they got away with that!
Although this is a great addition to the Supernatural Detective and Satanic Cult genre, I may have to hold back from reading the rest for a while. Dr Chillders just annoyed the hell out of me!
