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The Devil's Best Trick

By Randall Sullivan
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Brief Description
How we explain the evils of the world - and the darkest parts of ourselves - has preoccupied humans throughout history. In The Devil's Best Trick, Randall Sullivan investigates historical, religious and cultural conceptions of evil, from Biblical times to European witch hunts to the devil-worshipping... Read More
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Equal parts illuminating, riveting and unnerving, a brilliantly researched narrative investigation of how humankind has identified and confronted evil.

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How we explain the evils of the world - and the darkest parts of ourselves - has preoccupied humans throughout history.

In The Devil's Best Trick, Randall Sullivan investigates historical, religious and cultural conceptions of evil, from Biblical times to European witch hunts to the devil-worshipping 'Black Mass' ceremony. He travels to Mexico to participate in the 'Hour of the Witches' - an annual ceremony in which hundreds of people congregate in the jungle south of Vera Cruz to negotiate terms with El Diablo. He takes us through the most famous exorcism in American history. And he delivers original reporting on the shocking story of a small town in Texas that, in 1988, unravelled into paranoia and panic after a seventeen-year-old boy was found hanging from a tree and rumours about Satanic worship and cults flourished.

Nimble and expertly researched, The Devil's Best Trick brilliantly melds cultural and historical commentary with a suspenseful true-crime narrative. Randall Sullivan, whose reportage and narrative skill has been called 'extraordinary' and 'enthralling' by Rolling Stone, takes on a bold task in this book that is both biography of the Devil and a look at how evil manifests in the world.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781804710760

Publisher: Atlantic Books

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 03 October 2024

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Grove Press

Edition: Main

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 32.0mm

Width: 162.0mm

Height: 240.0mm

Weight: 557g

Pages: 352

Collections

Biography & Memoir Crime & Thriller Fiction Randall Sullivan Religion & Spirituality True Crime

About the Author

Randall Sullivan was a contributing editor to Rolling Stone for over twenty years. He is the author of Graveyard of the Pacific, Dead Wrong, The Price of Experience, LAbyrinth, The Miracle Detective, and Untouchable. His work has been published in, among many other places, Esquire, Outside, Men's Journal, Washington Post, and the Guardian. He lives in Oregon.

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  • The Curse of Oak Island
    The Curse of Oak Island is high-quality narrative non-fiction from a top-shelf journalist, extrapolated from Randall Sullivan's successful 2004 Rolling Stone article of the same title. The Oak Island mystery is the subject of the History Channel's reality TV series The Curse of Oak Island, which debuted in January 2014 and has become one of the most successful original shows...
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    A vivid portrait of the Columbia River Bar that combines maritime history, adventure journalism, and memoir, bringing alive the historyβ€”and presentβ€”of one of the most notorious stretches of water in the world. Off the coast of Oregon, the Columbia River flows into the Pacific Ocean and forms the Columbia River Bar: a watery collision so turbulent and deadly that it's...
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