Fiction about Ritual Abuse and Mind Control

Carlson, Dale Bick. (1983) The mystery of the shining children. Grosset & Dunlap, NY, NY. NOTE: Jenny Dean, teenage detective, suspects that a doctor’s experiments on children at a private foundation are part of a plot to achieve mind control.

Cart, Dorothy Cariker (1994) Jail bait. Sunstone Press: Santa Fe, NM.
NOTE: From the publisher: “Follow Shannon Ceranda through hilarious senior class antics to sinister cults to fast times in the country music world.”

Condon, Richard. (1958) Manchurian Candidate. McGraw Hill, NY, NY, (1993) No Exit Press, Halpenden, Herts. England and (2003) Four Walls Eight Windows, NY. NY.
NOTE: This novel is the story of Sgt. Raymond Shaw, an ex-prisoner of war (and winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor) who, brainwashed with the rest of his unit by a Chinese psychological expert during his captivity in North Korea, has come home programmed to kill a U.S. presidential nominee. The 1962 movie starring Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury was made from this book.
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Daniel, Zeph E. (2003) Glass backwards. Poison Vine Books, Oakland, CA.

DeCarlo, Elisa. (1993) The devil you say. Avon Books, NY, NY.
NOTE: From the publisher: “Hired to bid for the mysterious Book of Shadows at Sotheby’s auction house, London psychic Aubrey Arbuthnot discovers that his possession of the work has put a demon on his tail and two maidens in danger.”

DesErmia, Helen. (1995) Shadow people. Thomas Nelson, Nashville, TN.
NOTE: Christian fiction. From the publisher: “Reporter Susan Walker is eager to delve into her new assignment at the paper–investigating bizarre happenings around town. However, what surfaces are mysterious connections to the occult, all-too familiar names, and something more alarming than any front-page headline.”

Donas, John. (2005) The doves of winter. iUniverse, NY, NY.
NOTE: A woman kills the leader of a satanic cult rather than sacrifice an infant.

Ericson, Eric. (1978) The sorcerer. St. Martin’s Press, NY, NY.
NOTE: Robbie’s participation in an experiment conducted by a psychology professor specializing in mind control leads to his discovery of a plot to torture political prisoners.

French, Michael. (1998) Circle of revenge. Bantam Books, Toronto, Canada and NY, NY.
NOTE: From the publisher:  “Robbie’s participation in an experiment conducted by a psychology professor specializing in mind control leads to his discovery of a plot to torture political prisoners.”

Gill, Janet E. (1996) When darkness calls. Avon Books, NY,  NY.
NOTE: From the publisher:  “Trying to fit in as the new kid in town, Ellie is delighted when she is singled out by the most popular clique in school until she learns of the group’s ugly cult membership and its devotion to murderous secrets.”

Goobie, Beth. (1998) The colors of Carol Molev. Roussan Publishers, Montreal, Ont., Canada.
NOTE: A dream-like novel which conveys the feeling of being able to see into other dimensions, read people’s thoughts, influence and direct their energy, and also the feeling of being controlled by a malevolent cult. The setting is a high school and is realistically portrayed.

Greenberg, Martin H. and Waugh, Charles G. Eds. (1990) Devil worshipers. DAW Books, NY, NY.
NOTE: Collects tales of practice of the “dark arts” and worship of the dark side, by such authors as Robert Bloch, Anthony Boucher, Isaac Asimov, and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Griffey, Jackie. (2009) The devil in Merrivale. Zumaya Enigma, Austin, TX
NOTE: From the publisher:  “When a popular local girl’s body is found brutally stabbed in the woods near Merrivale, Sheriff Cas Larkin discovers a strange “club” at the local high school that smacks of devil worship. As if that weren’t enough, there are livestock thieves at work, and the longer he investigates the more tangled up things become. Is the county judge’s son running a satanic cult, coercing his classmates into dark ceremonies and worse?”

Harstad, Donald. (1998) Eleven days: A novel of the heartland. Doubleday, NY, NY.
NOTE: From the publisher:  “Inspired by actual events, Eleven Days takes readers on a gripping and unforgettable journey inside a heartland community and unveils its darkest secrets. Iowa highway patrolman and deputy sheriff Carl Houseman is comfortable with his night-shift routine of speeding tickets and slow crawls through Nation County’s two-stoplight towns. Houseman is in for the time of his life when a quiet weekend evening turns into eleven sleepless days after a 911 call from a terrified woman hits his dispatcher’s office. Upon arrival at the crime scene–a deserted farmhouse that even Hitchcock wouldn’t be able to duplicate–Houseman finds the woman gone and the owner slaughtered and mutilated. Down the lane, another farmhouse contains the bodies of four more victims, tortured before their deaths and all bearing the markings of a Satanic sacrifice.”

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. (2005: written in 1842) Young Goodman Brown. Wildside Press, Rockville, MD.
NOTE: From the publisher: “An outstanding tale of witchcraft, the story concerns a young Puritan who ventures into the forest to meet with a stranger. It soon becomes clear that he is approaching a witches’ Sabbath; he views with horror prominent members of his community participating in the ceremonies. Ultimately Brown is led to a flaming altar where he sees his wife, Faith. He cries out to her to “resist” and suddenly finds himself alone among the trees. He returns home but loses forever his faith in goodness or piety.”
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Hightower, Lynn S. (1993) Satan’s lambs. Walker, NY, NY.
NOTE: From the publisher: “After her brother-in-law kills her sister and her nephew, Lena becomes a PI and advocate for abused women and children whom the police and the legal system neglect. Hired to find a missing child who has been kidnapped by a brutal cult, Lena races against time to save the child’s life.”

Hill, Cheryl. Family tradition (2004) Available from: http://www.publishamerica.com.
NOTE: A fictionalized account of a woman fleeing her satanic family. It was written from an accumulation of personal, psychiatric, and private detective journals and notes on satanic ritual abuse.

Huysmans, Joris-Karl (1958) Down there: A study in satanism. Translated by Keene Wallis from La bas. Introduction by Robert Baldick. University Books, Evanston IL. NOTE: From the publisher: “At the novel’s center is Durtal, a writer obsessed with the life of one of the blackest figures in history, Gilles de Rais—child murderer, sadist, necrophile and practitioner of all the black arts. The book’s authentic, extraordinarily detailed descriptions of the Black Mass have never been surpassed.”

Karriker, Wanda. (2003) Morning, Come Quickly. Sandime, Ltd. Kindle edition available.
NOTE: A beautifully written book about a psychologist in a small southern town who discovers that one of her patients is a ritual abuse survivor. Slowly, she finds that she, too, has a ritual abuse past, and that government mind control experimentation has also taken place in the town.

Kedrowski, Steven. (2005) Lovesong for the bad priestess. iUniverse, NY, NY.
NOTE: Deals with teenage girls who worship satan, books that inspire people to murder, religious fanatics who worship a porn star, and apocalyptic hysteria in 1999.

Matthew, Laurie. Fight! Rabbit! Fight! Stories about ritual abuse. Dundee Young Women’s Centre,  Dundee, Scotland. See https://www.mairsinn.org.uk/publications.html
NOTE: A collection of stories, told in fairytale fashion, about the issues faced by survivors of ritual abuse and those who work with them.

Matthews, Alex. (1997) Satan’s silence. Intrigue Press, Angel Fire, NM.
NOTE: From the publisher: “Cassidy McCabe is having a bad day when her cat turns up missing and her client Dana undergoes a frightening flashback in which she witnessed a Satanic ritual. Knowing Dana has a psychiatric history, Cassidy is uncertain whether to take the suddenly recovered memory as reality or delusion. But when she tells the story to her partner in crime solving, investigative reporter Zach Moran, he recognizes the place Dana describes and insists on searching for evidence. As the evil that emerged deep in the forest preserve more than 20 years ago moves into the present, Cassidy begins to fear not only for her client’s life but for Zach’s and her own as well.”

McAllister, Bruce. (2010) Dream Baby. Createspace, Internet self-publisher.
NOTE: From the publisher: “In this acclaimed classic novel of ESP in war–praised by reviewers and readers alike as both a riveting science fiction thriller and one of the finest chronicles of the Vietnam War–young Army Nurse Mary Damico dreams the deaths of soldiers before they happen, but cannot save them. Only when she is recruited for a secret unit of other “esp talents”–one run by a rogue CIA psychiatrist who may be a “talent” himself–can she become the psychic commando she needs to be to stop the psychiatrist’s insanity and save those she has come to love.Dream Baby is based on fifteen years of research, interviews with two hundred veterans of three American wars who reported paranormal experiences that kept them alive, and actual classified contingency plans to end the war in Vietnam that have still not been made public.”

Myers, Bill. (1995) The spell. Tyndale House, Wheaton, IL.
NOTE: Christian fiction. From the publisher: “When they move to California after their missionary father is killed in South America, Rebecca must deal with the threats of a group of satanists while her younger brother Scott faces temptation at the hands of a beautiful classmate.”

Myers, Bill. (2009) Angel of Wrath. Hachette Books, NY, NY.
NOTE: From the publisher: “Thirteen-year-old Jazmin, her ex-Special Ops uncle Charlie, and former FBI agent Lisa are reunited in the second of the Voice of God series to stop an assassin driven to murder members of a megachurch led by Lisa’s brother. This assassin has drawn in a coven of teens toying with satanic practices to support his efforts. The naive youth engage in ceremonies that appear to usher in the death of each of his victims. When their rituals open a portal into the spiritual realm, a terrifying and mysterious entity crosses over to our world.The battle culminates with the capture of Lisa’s father as the next target and a Black Mass requiring both their deaths as a sacrifice.” Preview in Google books

Nickson, Elizabeth (1994) The monkey-puzzle tree. Knopf Canada, Toronto, Canada and Trafalgar Square, London, England.
NOTE: From the publisher: “During the 50s and 60s the CIA directed a series of programs in mind control, in which they used ordinary citizens as guinea pigs.  None went as far as the Allan Memorial Institute set up in Montreal by the eminent psychiatrist Dr. Ewen Cameron, with the connivance of the Canadian government.  In the name of research into brainwashing, he cruelly misused people who had minor–ostensibly temporary–psychiatric complaints, such as post-partum depression, as was the case with the author’s own mother. Nickson has employed the devices and textures of fiction to reveal the heart of this terrifying story.  She tells it from the perspective of a family enmeshed in a web of treachery.  She takes us from a Washington courtroom back to bitter-sweet scenes of an idyllic Canadian childhood which held frightening secrets. She shows us a girl, adoring and protective of her beautiful society mother whose behaviour increasingly puzzled and alienated her.  Layer by layer, the truth is unwrapped as warily as if it were a time bomb–a time bomb the CIA anticipates with a barrage of lawyers and dirty tricks.”

Reichs, Kathy. (2008) Devil bones. Scribner, NY, NY.
NOTE: From the publisher: “Temperance Brennan encounters a deadly mix of voodoo, Santería, and devil worship in her quest to identify two young victims. In a house under renovation, a plumber uncovers a cellar no one knew about, and makes a rather grisly discovery — a decapitated chicken, animal bones, and cauldrons containing beads, feathers, and other relics of religious ceremonies. In the center of the shrine, there is the skull of a teenage girl. Meanwhile, on a nearby lakeshore, the headless body of a teenage boy is found by a man walking his dog.”
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Roberts,  Nora. (1992) Divine Evil. Bantam Books, NY, NY. ISBN: 0553294903.
NOTE: A romantic mystery about satanic ritual murders.
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Scott, Barbara, and Younce, Carrie. (1996) Secrets of the gathering darkness. T Nelson, Nashville, TN.
NOTE: Christian fiction. From the publisher: “Exploring the importance of prayer, this is a gripping story of love and determination in difficult times. Christine Delarosa has been kidnapped and is being held hostage in a desert palace by pagan cult members. A murder investigation brings Christine’s husband John closer to the group who is holding Christine hostage–will he be able to save her from the evil surrounding her?”

Shirley, John. (2006) Batman: Dead white. Random House, NY, NY.
NOTE: From the publisher: “There’s a host of deadly new weapons in Batman’s glittering, sinister city–in the hands of a psychotic mastermind called White Eyes. With his radical murder machine, the fiendish leader of Gotham’s racist Bavarian Brotherhood can move beyond dealing drugs and hot guns to pursue his real passion: the white supremacist takeover of America.”

Shirley, John. (2006) Cellars. Infrapress, Akron, OH.
NOTE: From the Publisher: “An ancient evil deep beneath New York City turns subway stations into bloody altars for ritual sacrifice. Monsters made of blood arise from drains, an invisible hellhound devours human flesh, feral children stalk the shadowy streets and make murder a terrifying game. Occult investigator Carl Lanyard risks his life, his love, and his sanity as he battles the unspeakable forces of darkness.”

Siverling, Michael. (2006) The sorcerer’s circle. Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur, NY, NY.
NOTE: From the publisher: “Jason Wilder was wounded in his last encounter with the bad guys, but he’s back on the job and ready for another run-in. He’s just about to close up the private investigation office owned by his mother, Victoria, for the night, when an elderly man enters. His name is Elijah Messenger and he says someone is trying to kill. him. Jason gives him a polite brush-off, but the next morning he learns that the old man has indeed been murdered. It’s a morning full of trouble. The mayor arrives asking Victoria for help. His daughter has become involved with a group of “devil worshippers” and he wants her pried loose. When Mom learns that the group was from Messenger’s church, she turns the case over to Jason, but, as always, keeps out a maternal eye.”

Skibbins, David. (2006) High priestess. Thomas Dunne Books, NY, NY.
NOTE: From the publisher: “When Warren Ritter, by amazing luck, escaped the Greenwich Village explosion that brought down a house and several of his colleagues in the anti–Vietnam War movement, he was able to evade everyone who knew him and begin a new and very different life. Decades later, he is living in Berkeley, California, and is known by most of his few acquaintances as “that guy who has the street tarot stand on weekends.” That’s exactly what Warren wants. It’s not, however, always what he gets.
When an old man approaches his table and waves a large sum of money at him for some service, Warren refuses before even asking what the job is. But the man calls him by his real name, forcing him to reconsider. Warren knows the man; he’s the twin brother of a woman whom Warren remembers as always stirring up trouble.
The old man and his sister preside over the “Church of Satan.” Two church members have been murdered in what were made to look like accidents, and the man is certain that he and his sister are next. He wants Warren to find the killer, and with the threat of exposure, Warren must comply.”

Smith, Brian Scott. (1997) When shadows fall. Leisure Books, Dorchester Pub. Co., NY, NY.
NOTE: From the publisher: “Martin doesn’t believe his aunt’s sudden death was an accident, and he and his buddies are determined to find the truth. But when he starts sneaking around the house of his aunt’s “friends”, he witnesses a blood-drenched satanic ritual with a young girl on the altar. Worse yet, the witches saw him! Now, Martin is in a race for his life.”

Spark, Muriel. (1960) The ballad of Peckham Rye. New Directions, NY, NY.
NOTE: From the publisher: “The Ballad of Peckham Rye is the wickedly farcical fable of a blue-collar town turned upside down. When the firm of Meadows, Meade & Grindley hires Dougal Douglas (a.k.a. Douglas Dougal) to do “human research” into the private lives of its workforce, they are in no way prepared for the mayhem, mutiny, and murder he will stir up. “Not only funny but startlingly original”, declared The Washington Post, “the legendary character of Dougal Douglas… may not have been boasting when he referred so blithely to his association with the devil”. In fact this Music Man of the thoroughly modern corporation changes the lives of all the eccentric characters he meets, from Miss Merle Coverdale, head of the typing pool, to V.R. Druce, unsuspecting Managing Director. The Ballad of Peckham Rye presents Dame Muriel Spark at her most devilishly piquant.”
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Spellman, Cathy Cash. (2011) Bless the child. (1993) Wild Harp & Co., Westport, CT.
NOTE: From the publisher: “Maggie O’Connor is a forty-two-year-old grandmother. She is also about to do battle with Satan… she just doesn’t know it yet. What if your drug-addicted daughter left a newborn baby on your doorstep and disappeared? What if she came back three years later and took the child you love into a satanic cult? And, what if that child turned out to be mankind’s last hope in the war between Good and Evil?”

Spellman, Cathy Cash. (2011) Lark’s labyrinth. (1993) Createspace, Internet self-publisher.
NOTE: From the publisher: “The Spear that pierced Christ’s side on the Cross has played a secret, but major role in history. Charlemagne, Constantine, Otto the Barbarian, The Knights Templar and Adolf Hitler all owned it… and believed it gave them the power to rule the world. What if they were right? The first time Dr. Cait Monahan ever heard of the Spear of Longinus was the night her husband was murdered because of it. That was when the terror began… right before the U.S. Government, the CIA, Neo Nazis, the Vatican and a secret cabal of 13 powerful global manipulators sent their assassins after her and her 9 year old… just before a lethal secret propelled her across Europe following a riddle that hadn’t been solved since the Holocaust.…just before Cait Monahan became entrapped in an interdimensional labyrinth that her own husband may have helped design.”

Strieber, Whitley. (1983) The night church. Simon and Schuster, NY, NY.
NOTE: An ancient Satanic cult takes over a neighborhood church in Queens each evening with the goal of breeding monstrously evil creatures.

Teran, Boston. (1999) God is a bullet. Alfred A. Knopf, NY, NY.
NOTE: About a twenty-five year old murder and the kidnapping of a teen-aged girl by a satanic cult called The Left-Handed Path. Set in California and Mexico.

Wagner, Bonita. (2002) Cries from the cradle. iUniverse, NY, NY.
NOTE: A woman’s escape from a Satanic cult.

Wellman, Manly Wade. (1985) The school of darkness. Doubleday, Garden City, NY.

Wise, Steven W. (1994) Chambers. T. Nelson, Nashville TN.
NOTE: Christian fiction.

Zwick, C. C. The cult of AAI. Pentland Press, England and Raleigh, NC.
NOTE: Christian fiction.