The Witches' Hammer

Jane Stanton Hitchcock's second novel is a chilling and unpredictable story in which the powers of darkness and pathology lurk just beneath the surface of modern life. Her first novel, Trick of the Eye, was nominated for both the Edgar Award and the Hammett Prize for "best first mystery novel." Now Hitchcock practices her narrative skills even more convincingly in this sinister thriller about a vulnerable young woman drawn deep into a web of evil who must unravel the coils of her own sexual identity and womanhood. Beatrice O'Connell's orderly life is shattered when her father, a gentle man preoccupied with rare-book collecting, is viciously murdered. Discovered missing from his library is a seemingly harmless fifteenth-century grimoire - a manual of black magic or, as some would believe, the "work of the Devil." What is the secret of this apparently unprepossessing volume that powerful people are prepared to risk so much to possess? Does it contain a demonic spell? Or is the map for a hidden treasure buried within its timeworn pages? And so what begins with the casual acceptance of a book of black magic with obscene illustrations ends with the discovery of a vast contemporary witch-hunt. With the help of a chain-smoking occultist, a libidinous social worker in Spanish Harlem, and a remorseful ex-husband, Beatrice struggles to piece together the puzzle...in Oklahoma, where the book first surfaced; in upstate New York, home of an enormously wealthy foundation with strong ties to the Church; in London, where the daughter of a Nazi official sheds light on one corner of the dark Nazi past; in Italy, where a demented former Vatican official forces Beatrice to pay an uncompromisingly high price for a vital piece of the puzzle. And finally in Switzerland, where she must confront evil incarnate in the most direct way imaginable. A respected surgeon and rare book collector is brutally murdered in his elegant Manhattan home, just hours after showing a book dealer the fifteenth-century manual of black magic—a grimoire—he'd received from a grateful patient. Now the healer's blood is everywhere—and only the priceless grimoire is missing.The horrific death of her beloved father has shattered Beatrice O'Connell's quiet, sane, and orderly world. Only by tracking down the vanished malevolent tome—with its dark spell and salacious illustrations—can she hope to put things right. But the search is leading Beatrice, her ex-husband, and a mysterious occultist into an expanding labyrinth of powerful evils, a tangled web that reaches as far as the Vatican itself. What coveted secrets are hidden in the missing volume that threaten to turn Beatrice into precisely what her unseen and unrelenting enemies are determined to destroy? In New York, A Woman Uncovers An Occult Conspiracy To Reimpose The Supremacy Of Men In Our Society And Destroy All Feminists. Beatrice O'connell Stumbles On It As She Investigates A 15th Century Grimoire, A Handbook Of Black Magic. By The Author Of Trick Of The Eye. Jane Stanton Hitchcock. Spændingsroman om mordet på en antikvarboghandler, der myrdes efter at han har erhvervet sig en bog om sort magi