This seemed like a good choice to start the new year. That movie "The Exorcist" scared me to death when I saw it in the theater in the 1970's. This book is the story behind the movie. It is an actual case of demon possession that happened here in St. Louis in 1949.
It involved a boy and priests from St. Louis University. Troy Taylor has used many sources including a diary, interviews and other written sources to write this chronicle of what actually happened. It is quite interesting. I am not a skeptic so I didn't read this at bedtime.
He has also done his homework and had the first chapter on the history of exorcisms. Then he writes about several historical exorcisms in Germany and the U.S. Particularly interesting to me was the 1877 Watseka, Illinois case of a 13 year old girl named Lurancy. She kept going into a trance and later seemed to be channeling another Watseka girl that she didn't even know. She actually went to the home of the other girl (who had died) and lived there for a time. She knew all sorts of things about that family of strangers while her own family seemed like strangers to her. I'm feeling chills.
Troy Taylor has also written many other books about haunted places around Illinois and Missouri. Good daytime read.
