The Satan Sleuth

The first in a series of cover galleries featuring series characters published by Mews, an imprint of New English Library. The stories were mostly reprints of American series from the likes of Lyle Kenyon Engel, who often used house names to cover the work of multiple authors contributing to a single series. I'll try to identify these where I can.

First up, tho', we have Michael Avallone's Satan Sleuth, who did what it says on the tin. Having the opening bit of the blurb – "The most powerful series since Dennis Wheatley's black magic novels" – in quotes makes it appear to be . . . a quote. But who from? And where? Well, actually, it was probably a quote from the guy writing the blurb. If it came to a demonic battle between Wheatley and Avallone, I'd put my money on Wheatley every time.

There was a third Satan Sleuth novel published in the US: The Werewolf Walks Tonight (1974). It didn't appear from Mews, so I have to presume that others felt that Avallone's take on Satanic sleuthing wasn't up to much either.

Fallen Angel (New York, Warner, Nov 1974)
Mews 0452-00001-7, Apr 1976, 144pp, 40p.

"The most powerful new series since Dennis Wheatley's black magic novels"
From the moment Philip St. George saw the butchered and mangled corpse that had once been his beautiful wife, Dorothy, he became a man with a terrible mission.
__For the bloody handiwork was that of an obscene and blasphemous cult of Devil Worshippers – and so Philip St. George dedicated himself to destroying all those who followed the way of Satan.
__He became a crusader against The Evil One and all his minions on Earth – THE SATAN SLEUTH!

Devil, Devil... (New York, Warner, Jan 1975)
Mews 0452-00014-9, Jun 1976, 159pp, 40p.

Philip St. George is The Satan Sleuth, a man who through terrible personal knowledge of the evils and debauchery of Black Magic becomes a lone fighter against Satanism.
__Now he is matched against Sister Sorrow, the Bride of Lucifer, who leads a coven of witches practising in the heart of New York, A she-devil whose hypnotic black eyes could change a man into a beast and command her subjects to commit murder.
__Five beautiful girls have already met their death at her command – five beheaded corpses, their severed bodies scarred with the Devil's markings. But The Satan Sleuth has vowed his own kind of magic and dedication that there will be no more!