Randall Sullivan

You know, of course, about the Devil’s best trick: getting people to believe he does not exist.

The irony of this statement is not lost on Randall Sullivan in The Devil’s Best Trick: How the Face of Evil Disappeared (galley received as part of early review program).

Overall the book represents the author’s investigative journeys, catalyzed by a friend and her experiences, into matters of evil and the occult. He started out dismissive; he ended up a believer.

The first section of the book represents a continual back and forth between the author’s investigation into suspicious deaths in Childress, Texas, right during the end of the “satanic panic” period of the 1980s and early 1990s, and an exploration into the history of beliefs about Satan and the demonic. While the “satanic panic” was mostly overblown, the events in Childress presented all kinds of evidence of satanic worship and occult behaviors. The author decently documented the history of how people understood evil, and most of his focus was placed upon the last 300 years or so and how belief in evil spirits has become seen as superstitious and irrational.

The second section of the book represents the travelogue of the author and his friend as they visited Catemaco, Mexico, and met with people there involved in both “white” and “black” magic. The author made his apologetic for the accounts of the conquistadors and early friars in Mexico about the prevalence of human sacrifice among the Mexica (aka the Aztecs) and his convictions about how offering such sacrifices to their gods really was satanic, demonic service. He then asserts Satan and the demons still have a stronghold in Mexico. The reader certainly understands how the author left all of those experiences believing in the existence of the forces of evil.

Does the author ultimately explain how the face of evil disappeared? Again, there’s some historical discussion regarding how it became less socially acceptable to believe in such things. But in the end the author makes a decent case, even on a secular level, to recognize the existence of dark forces which humans think they can manipulate but end up becoming their servants.

The Bible never denies the existence of Satan or evil forces; the consistent, continual warning is for Christians to have nothing to do with them at all. The option will always be there. But don’t mess with it, or it will mess you up.… (more)

The book is aimed at fans of the TV show and so a lot of it is about the Lagina brothers and their part in the quest. The first half of the book starts with the story of the discovery and then moves through the different attempts to find the treasure. At lot of the book is devoted to various theories about the origins of the treasure - if there is one. The historic and documentary parts of the book are interesting and well-written but the author lost me when he inserted the chapter about supernatural events on and near the island. That was a line too far for me.
read 12/15/2023… (more)