Devil's Peak

by Brian N. Ball

Stranded in a High Peak transport cafe during a freak snowstorm, Jerry Howard finds himself in a vortex of Satanism. Brenda was a motorway girl with a strange scar on her back. The Mark of the Beast. She knew the history of the Brindley legend. And she alone knew the rites.

She had been on Devil's Peak before. Now it was Walpurgisnacht and the horned goat was expected. Events moved to a horrendous climax..."

Genres: Horror

150 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Also writes as Brian Ball.

Reviews

[Tom Woods · Rating 2 out of 5]

'Stranded in a High Peak transport cafe during a freak snowstorm, Jerry Howard finds himself in a vortex of Satanism.'

That's a punchy one-line summary right there. It's got everything! Snowstorms! Satanism! Vortexes! Transport cafes! If all that doesn't get you even a little bit excited for this book, then frankly we have nothing more to say to each other.

Unfortunately, the book's early promise is soon replaced with lots of conversations in the cafe's kitchen about not going down into the cellar. The Devil's in this dull tale.

[Gavcrimson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nah then, me flower, sit thee down wi' a mug o' summat hot cause this be a reet Yorkshire tale t'horror. The Devil's Peak by that there Brian N Ball, a proper Yorkshire lad hisself from Doncaster way. It's all set slap-bang in t'wilds back in t'seventies, them bleak moors an' crags what sit reet on t'edge o' Yorkshire, full o' nowt but trouble. Proper atmospheric, like, wi' t'wind howlin' across t'heather an' proper folk talkin' broad as a pint o' Tetley's. Jerry Howard, this twenty-five-year-old student chap what's pokin' about lost villages, gets hisself proper knackered climbin' in t'freak snowstorm o' all storms. He's half-froze an' battered when along comes Bill Ainsley, a right burly lorry driver, an' his lass Brenda – a proper Yorkshire slag givin't away t'anyone on t'motorway. They scoop Jerry up an' cart t'poor bugger off to t'Castle Caff, this grim transport cafe stuck out on t'road like a lost sheep. Place is run by lecherous old Sam Raybould an' his bossy cow wife Sylvia, an' to make matters worse, a whole coach-load o' schoolgirls is snowed in an' all, chatterin' away an' gettin' t'menfolk all hot under t'collar. But summat's off, tha knows. Cellar under t'caff's full o' dark corners an' worse. That Brenda knows more than she's lettin' on as Walpurgisnacht rolls round...that's t'night o' t'witches, when t'horned goat hisself is expected.

Unfortunately, t'more recent edition by t'Linford Mystery Library seems to've been mucked about wi'. The daft buggers 've slightly censored it fer language, an' stuck in this odd bit where t'schoolgirls ask t'Rayboulds fer a CD player – summat what wouldn't 'ave existed in t'1970s when t'book were written. Clear as day it's a clumsy attempt to modernise t'text, but it sticks out like a sore thumb an' jars t'period feel. Instead, sees if ye can track down t'original edition by t'New English Library, me flower.

T' New English Library edition's got a woman's breasts plastered right on t'front as well, just like them Page 3 lasses in t'Sun back in t'day. Proper eye-catcher, nowt subtle about it. But t'German edition? Der Fürst der Finsternis. Ey up, that's summat else! Fully naked schoolgirls flolickin' wi' t'horned one hisself – reet rude, nowt left to t'imagination, me flower.

[Sean Harding · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apparently this was book six in a series, although it did feel stand alone, and it wasn't that great either. It felt all over the place and never really engaged you. It tried to do a lot, and it ended up achieving very little.

[Mark H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second of three occult thrillers by the author for New English Library. First is Lesson for the Damned, third is The Venomous Serpent. All set in the wilds of 1970s’ Yorkshire.

I enjoyed this, but less than The Venomous Serpent (US title: The Night Creature). The tiny setting (a mountain café), small cast of characters and plentiful clues made the outcome fairly obvious.

After a tense opening, the story kept circling until the rushed finale. As if the author had ‘padded’ the second act, not leaving enough time for the climax.