REVIEWED BY DAN STUMPF:         


A. MERRITT Seven Footprints to Satan

A. MERRITT – Seven Footprints to Satan. Boni & Liveright, US, hardcover, 1928. Richards, UK, hardcover, 1928. First serialized in Argosy All-Story Weekly, June-July 1927. Reprinted many times, in both hardcover and soft. Film: First National, 1929

   Speaking of scary books, I recently picked up a copy of A. Merritt’s Seven Footprints to Satan. Seems to me like Merritt divided his time between creepy contemporary chillers like Burn Witch Burn and ancient-empire fantasies like Dwellers in the Mirage.

A. MERRITT Seven Footprints to Satan

   Footprints is somewhere in the middle, a fast-moving adventure with a modern (1920s) hero pitted against a criminal mastermind who styles himself as Satan, ensconced in a labyrinthine palace of preposterous proportions, staffed with mindless slaves, distressed damsels and assorted thralls.

   It’s all fast-moving and purple, with chases, fights, torture… everything you pick up a thriller for. Not believable for a moment, but I didn’t put it down, either.