Satan Influenced Books In Order

Publication Order of Satan Influenced Books

Satan Influenced is a series of horror novels written by William W. Johnstone. The books are some of the earliest titles in Johnstone’s bibliography, written long before he came to fame.

+The Story

William W. Johnstone was quite the famous author before he died in 2004. Many a reader had come to associate him with Westerns like the ‘Mountain Man’ series. He also dabbled in mystery and thriller.

The author’s heroes were hard men of considerable skill who faced great odds and attained victory because of their grit. Many of the author’s fans have little to no knowledge of his horror background.

In fact, by the time he died, a considerable portion of his fanbase distinctly categorized him as an author of Westerns. They had no idea that he was a writer of diverse skill that had produced survivalist and even horror novels such as the Satan Influenced series.

In fact, William W. Johnstone began his career in the horror genre. His first set of novels was collectively called ‘Devil’ and it fell comfortably within the horror genre. By the time Johnstone wrote ‘A Crying Shame’, he had already established himself in literary horror.

‘A Crying Shame’ is the first novel in the Satan Influenced Series. The books are definitely a product of the 1980s, featuring a litany of campy, cheesy overly exaggerated concepts.

‘A Crying Shame’, the first novel, takes readers to a small town in Louisiana. A Marshland in the area has always elicited fear and rumor, primarily because people claimed they could hear women weeping from within its depths.

No one ever took those claims that seriously, though. And the Marshlands seemed destined to become just another urban legend haunting an insignificant town. But then hairy creatures emerge out of the marshlands’ murky waters and everything changes.

A variation of Bigfoot, it looks like the creatures are on the prowl for young, beautiful, nubile women, and there’s little the town’s people can do to stop them.

‘A Crying Shame’ is often recommended to fans of horror and even to those individuals that might be undecided as to whether or not they want to give the Satan Influenced series a shot because the book is such an accurate picture of the rest of the series.

The story has a disturbing amount of gore. This further supports the comparisons that have been made between this series and the horror movies of the 1980s. William W. Johnstone writes some truly atrocious scenes.

His characters in ‘A Crying Shame’ die in the most grotesque ways and he succeeds in taking readers through every single second of those experiences. In fact, some readers have criticized him for going a little overboard and throwing violence at them for the purposes of shock value and nothing else.

However, his fans believe that his books add to the escapist elements of his novels, allowing you to truly immerse yourself in the horrifying world that William W. Johnstone has created.

And each new book in the series works hard to exceed the limits of its predecessors. This is not only true for the violence and the gore but also the sex of which there is quite a lot.

The author’s characters take every excuse that comes their way to have sex and the fact that they are facing mortal danger rarely slows them down. It isn’t unheard of to come across a Satan Influenced novel in which a character or two are killed off while having sex.

The protagonists are relatively clichéd, following the stereotypes of the average low budget horror movie. They are always in the wrong place at the wrong time. They make all the wrong decisions, go into all the wrong dark corners, and awaken the worst possible monsters.

The creatures in question take a variety shapes and sizes. A select few are physically horrifying and will range from werewolves to giant cockroaches. A surprising number are seemingly innocuous objects and entities that eventually develop a ferocious appetite.

Regardless of the form they take, Johnstone’s villains are designed to represent the worst that evil has to offer. They are overpowered, relentless and nearly unstoppable.

The Satan Influenced series isn’t supposed to be taken seriously. The novels are not serious pieces of literature. William W. Johnstone’s goal is to entertain his readers. The books he writes are best enjoyed by those individuals that are willing to turn their brains off and have a good time.

The series is not meant to be ruminated upon and dissected to discover hidden meanings.

+The Author

William W. Johnstone was an American author that was born in 1938 in Missouri. He was sixty-five when he died in 2004. The youngest in a family of four kids and born to a minister and a school teacher, William left school at a young age.

He did a couple of odd jobs before finding his way into law enforcement and eventually enrolling in the army. Starting in 1970, William wrote for many years before his works were published.

Once his first novel hit bookstores in 1979, he abandoned everything else to become a full-time writer. When the author died, his passing remained a rumor and a subject of heated discussions for quite a few years before it was finally announced and confirmed.

+A Crying Shame

A small town in Louisiana is in for a heap of trouble. People always thought the Crying Swamp was an eerie place. The marshland was supposedly haunted, or at the very least it was suggested that the sounds of weeping women could be heard from within its waters.

No one thought much of these rumors. But then women started to go missing and hairy creatures burst onto the scene. Now the small town is in a state of panic. For one particular woman, things are personal. Her brother, a researcher, was brutally murdered.

She has teamed up with a mercenary to get to the bottom of the situation.

+Blood Oath

A group of rich kids went too far in the early 1970s when they raped a teenage girl. She eventually died and so did her brother. It has been more than two decades since then and this particular group must face the consequences of their sins.