The Witching Night

It is too bad that The Witching Night is Leslie Waller’s only foray into weird fiction, because it’s a chilling tour de force. Written early in the bestselling author’s career, Waller used the pseudonym C. S. Cody to distinguish the novel from the crime fiction and international intrigue he would later become famous for. Groundbreaking in its approach, The Witching Night pits medical science against a relentless, malignant force. Dr. Loomis—a young, well-grounded MD who operates a small clinic in Chicago—draws on his medical training by using pharmaceuticals to keep himself buoyant and lucid in the midst of a direct attack by a malicious entity . . . or is it a curse? Nameless, indefinable . . . one thing is certain: it’s a killer, and likes to torture before it kills. Leslie Waller wrote such memorable novels as Dog Day Afternoon and Hide in Plain Sight. He also collaborated with Steven Spielberg on the novelization of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Too long neglected, The Witching Night was chosen to launch Bruin Books’ new line of weird fiction, Bruin Asylum. Introduction by Jonathan Eeds. Welcome to the Asylum.