In 1942, Major Ray
Hawkins must assemble a unit of civilians and military to keep the Nazis from
releasing a desert djinn against the Allied forces in North Africa. They will
have to employ conventional warfare and unconventional witchcraft to accomplish
the mission.
Devil in the
Desert
Office of
Supernatural Directives Book 1
by Russell James
Genre: Historical
Horror
It is 1942 and a
secret group within the Nazi SS is on the hunt for objects of the occult,
hoping to harvest their power for wonder weapons to win the war. Its leader,
Gruppenfuhrer Karl Weitz, has more than military might behind him. He has
recruited the Ochre Witch, an Eastern European sorceress capable of adapting
what they seize to serve the Reich’s needs.
Only one team can stop the Axis powers from winning World War II.
Army Major Ray Hawkins is tasked with creating the Office of Supernatural
Directives to stop these fanatics. He assembles a team that includes a female
WASP pilot, an enlisted man with a passion for language and puzzles, a
mysterious American ex-pat from the French Foreign Legion, and a young Romany
woman who will need to embrace the mystic Gypsy teachings she’s spent her life
despising.
Their first mission unfolds in Tunisia, where Weitz and the Ocher Witch plan to
release a djinn the locals call the Devil in the Desert. It wields the power to
spread debilitating fear. If Major Hawkins and his band cannot stop the djinn,
it will sow panic among the Americans and Rommel’s Afrika Korps will crush the
invasion force. But Hawkins’ new team has many weaknesses, and Weitz and the
Ocher Witch will exploit every one of them to win.
Russell
R. James was raised on Long Island, New York and spent too much time watching
Chiller, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and Dark Shadows, despite his parents'
warnings. Bookshelves full of Stephen King and Edgar Allan Poe didn't make
things better. He graduated from Cornell University and the University of
Central Florida.
After
flying helicopters with the U.S. Army and a career as a technical writer, he
now spins twisted tales best read in daylight, including horror thrillers Dark
Inspiration, Q Island, and The Playing Card Killer. He authored the Grant
Coleman Adventures series starting with Cavern of the Damned and the Ranger
Kathy West series starting with Claws. He resides in sunny Florida. His wife
reads his work, rolls her eyes, and says "There is something seriously
wrong with you."
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