Ancient Sorceries: The Adventures of John Silence (Penguin Weird Fiction) by Algernon Blackwood

Welcome to the casebook of Dr John Silence, Physician Extraordinary. After a long and severe training – five years he was gone from the face of the earth, travelling who knows where – Silence returned to England as the greatest occult detective of the age. When he takes up an investigation, when he comes to the aid of some poor, frightened soul, you can be sure it will lead to the most strange and terrifying of circumstances: from pagan magic in remote France to battles with ancient Egyptian fire spirits, and from geometry defying alternate dimensions to the most macabre of haunted houses.

Some of the first works written by Algernon Blackwood – one of the twentieth century’ s greatest ghost story writers – these John Silence tales are a visionary blend of horror, fantasy and science fiction, and remain today as some of pinnacle achievements of Weird Fiction.