The Witch of Criswell

[ecosophia]

I'm very excited to announce the approaching publication of my latest novel, The Witch of Criswell: An Ariel Moravec Occult Mystery, due for release in April. This is the first volume of a new series, and heads off in a relatively new direction for me.

Occult detective stories go back nearly as far as detective stories themselves; as far as I know, the first occult detective story was Fitz James O'Brien's 1855 piece "A Pot of Tulips," which pits occult investigator Harry Escott against a ghost. William Hope Hodgson's "Carnacki the Ghost Finder" series, the first of which saw print in 1910, kickstarted the genre into motion, and there have been hundreds of other writers in the field since then, including serious occultists -- Dion Fortune and Aleister Crowley both published occult detective stories, for example.

One of the things that's irritated me about much of occult detective fiction, however, is that so many of its creators don't know enough about occultism to figure out which end of a wand to hold. It's understandable -- so many people don't have a clue that there's anything real going on in occultism, and so they treat it as a subset of fantasy and drag in all kinds of Harry Potteresque pseudomagical drivel -- but I can't help comparing it to the kind of really bad science fiction that ignores little things like the laws of physics. Nor is real magic any less useful as a plot engine than the fake variety. Dion Fortune's occult novels, in particular, make good use of actual magic; there are no Hollywood special effects in The Goat Foot God, for example, but there's still plenty of suspense and no shortage of plot.

I've always thought that the best way to get something to happen is to do it yourself. With that in mind, and with the enthusiastic help of Sphinx Press, a British fiction publisher, I've launched a new series with this book -- a sequence of occult detective novels in which all the magic is real. It's set in and around an East Coast city you'll have a hard time finding on a map -- Adocentyn, which (as you may not have learned in school) was founded in 1668 by Elias Ashmole and a group of his occultist friends -- and plunges the main character into a tangled case involving ghosts, witchcraft, and ceremonial magic. Here's the blurb:

"Eighteen-year-old Ariel Moravec doesn't expect much from a summer with the grandfather she hasn't met in years: a respite from her dysfunctional family, perhaps, and a brief delay before she has to face an uncertain future.  A few days after her arrival, however, she learns that her grandfather is an occult investigator tasked with hunting down the perils of the Unseen -- and he offers Ariel the chance to assist him on a case. Strange forces are stirring in the little farm town of Criswell, where a famous witch lived in colonial times. Has old Hepzibah Rewell's curse awakened, or is the evil magic the work of someone living? Caught in a tightening net of bitter local rivalries and strange happenings, Ariel has to find out...or her own life may be at risk."

The second volume in the series, The Book of Haatan, is complete in draft and will be on its way to the publisher as soon as I get a few final corrections done; it centers on magical treasure-hunting and the theft of a book of magic. The second, The Carnelian Moon, is in outline form; it's about lycanthropy -- not the fantasy variety, but the sort of thing that Eliphas Lévi discussed in Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic. There will be more. There's an overall story arc of sorts, but it's an open-ended series and should be a lot of fun.

Interested? If you're in the United States, The Witch of Criswell can be preordered here; elsewhere in the world, the publisher's website is your best bet.

Comments

lycanthropy

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, excellent news on the publication!

After reading your post I idly googled Eliphas Levi and lycanthropy, and came across the Lycan Foundation, based in Michigan. It maintains a museum and research foundation originally endowed by an Algonquin family in which the men had a tendency to be lycanthropes. Quite fascinating.
http://lycanfoundation.org/

--Ms. Krieger

Re: lycanthropy

[ecosophia]

Hmm! Interesting to hear this. Shapeshifting is quite common in Native American traditions, so it doesn't surprise me at all, but I'll certainly have a look.

[thinking_turtle]

The new detective book sounds awesome! I'll be ordering a copy when the new month arrives.

[open_space]

Yesterday I was listening to your Thothermes podcast about this!

Congrats on the new book, JMG :-) May the magical chain reach even farther with it.

[grandswamperman]

Really looking forward to this. Who did the cover illustration?

[ecosophia]

Phoebe Young, a staff member and artist at Sphinx Books.

[deborah_bender]

Free publicity for the Adocentyn Research Library https://adocentynlibrary.org

drat, left out the colon in the URL

eBook version

[sjmvideo]

Hi JMG,
Will there be an eBook version of The Witch of Criswell? I'm an international nomad for the foreseeable future. Not interested in more weight and space to carry around. I'd even pay full price for a digital copy.
Steven

Re: eBook version

[ecosophia]

Yes. Sphinx normally does ebook editions alongside print editions.

Re: eBook version

[sjmvideo]

Great to know. Thanks. Look forward to being able to get a copy.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello John Michael Gree,
Congratulations on your new literary adventure!
PS I cannot agree more, that "the best way to get something to happen is to do it yourself."
MILLICENTLY LURKING

[(Anonymous)]

After our earlier discussion of occult fiction I picked up Fortune's Dr. Taverner stories and Blackwood's John Silence stories; the occult detectives are more interesting and more fun than the tediously materialistic Sherlock Holmes. Looking forward to this series!

--Sister Crow

[illyria2001]

Looking forward to reading this!

[samhays]

Excellent, I just pre-ordered the book and I can't wait to read it. I also find it frustrating that occult fiction in general is so needlessly unrealistic. And thanks for recommending The Goat Foot God. I've yet to read any of Dion Fortune's fiction books, but I'll have to check that one out, for sure. Are there any other realistic occult fiction titles you would highly recommend, from Fortune or any other authors?

[(Anonymous)]

Afternoon John,
This is excellent news and the timing is perfect, just a couple of weeks before my birthday. I look forward to the series.
Regards Averagejoe

Libraries

[frittermywig]

My book-buying budget is quite curtailed these days. Is it acceptable to you, JMG, if I request my local library purchase a copy?

YAY!!

[emily07]

Thank you for writing this! I use the Dr. Tavener and the WOH books as thinking tools about magic, and am delighted to switch from the WOH parts to real magic! Great, and looking forward to the sequels!
Congratulations, Emily07

[thinking_turtle]

From the Netherlands, this item is cheaper if ordered through Amazon at https://amazon.nl. Amazon is 15,16 euro including delivery vs Sphinxbooks 20 pounds excluding delivery.

[sdi]

(I apologize if it's considered bad form to comment on an old post: I'm not really certain of the etiquette.)

I received my copy of The Witch of Criswell last week and read it over the weekend. I just wanted to let you know that I enjoyed it—much more than the Weird of Hali series, in fact—and will look forward to future installments.

Two comments in particular. First, I found the detective aspect satisfying: it was a mystery with enough information that one could plausibly make a hypothesis and solve the case before the reveal (unlike, for example, most of the Sherlock Holmes stories, where the wool is intentionally pulled over the reader's eyes to make Holmes seem all the more superhuman). Second, I found the occult lore noted in the book helpful: if I had known about witches and salt fifteen years ago, for example, I wouldn't have had to ferret them out of my life the hard way. I hope those points make it into future books as well.

[ecosophia]

Thank you! I'm delighted to hear that you enjoyed it.