Given the author's dire warnings in the foreword, I have to wonder why he would continue to write in such detail about abhorrent and dangerous practices. If you believe in God, you'll notice from some statements made throughout that Wheatley did not - a strangeness, for a writer of an occult thriller about Satanists and black magic, though possibly not quite as strange as one denying the existence of the Devil. (He posits "earthbound spirits" and "elementals" instead.) And there's <i>a lot</i> of the black magic. <spoiler>(I did find the Talisman rather amusing though. I realize it's based on mythology, but there was definitely an amount of smirkage which made it hard to keep the appropriate mood.)</spoiler>

So those are my thoughts on the occult side of this. As a classic thriller it's got all the elements: a mysterious organization that must be stopped, huge conspiracies, a beautiful girl in trouble and a plot that moves between countries while drawing on aspects from both East and West. But this was a minor part of the overall story, and rather overshadowed by all the occult stuff.

Ultimately, I didn't feel comfortable reading it, didn't particularly enjoy it, and won't read any more of these.