A Darkness Never-Ending

Joey Netherhill is an ex-army, ex-policeman who has changed his name to avoid being found by his ex-wife. Through a series of career moves in the South of England, which is as far from his Scottish wife than he can get, he progresses from night-club bouncer to debt-collector for the mob. By an accident of fate his services are requested by the local DS Davy Reid who is afraid that his girlfriend is having and affair. Joey discovers that she has a brother who is wanted for armed-robbery and has hidden himself by joining a commune in the hills behind the village of Poolemouth, and that this is the cause of her secrecy. DS Reid is delighted when he finds this out and subsequently directs more work to Joey from both himself and his colleagues. Now with his own little PI firm and glamorous assistant, the ex-police researcher Vanda, Davy Reid asks him to help find a missing scientist John Connelly, explaining that he has insufficient police resources to do the job himself. A clue comes when someone phones requesting if there is a reward. Joey follows this call up and finds that it comes from the same commune in the hills. He decides to waste no time and motors there that night. He approaches the densely hidden tract by forest fire-breaks and finds himself in the middle of the ritualistic crucifixion of Connelly himself. He rescues this young man and is pursued by heavily armed mob. They escape thanks to a sudden deluge. Joey takes Connelly to the nearby little hospital where he is joined by one overnight duty policemen nicknamed Twinky. Together they stand guard and manage to survive a vicious fire-fight. Joey is puzzled as to why the commune seem to want Connelly so desperately, and this curiosity leads him into a direct confrontations with its satanic leader, Charlie, and his army of followers, to the discovery of heinous sexual blackmail, and to liaisons several women who are a whistle-blower, a newspaper-editor, a motel-owner, a rich spoiled brat, and the heiress to a fortune.