The Haunting of Toby Jugg

Über

The Haunting of Toby Jugg is a 1948 psychological thriller novel on an occult theme by Dennis Wheatley, incorporating Wheatley's usual themes of satanic possession and madness, in what was at that time a fresh situation: a disabled British airman recovering from his experiences in the last stages of World War II, in which he played a part in the bombardment of Germany.
Toby is the heir to a vast fortune and stands to inherit his grandfather's business empire on his twenty-first birthday. Toby's mother died in childbirth and his father and grandfather were killed in the same aircraft accident, leaving his Uncle Paul and Aunt Julia as his only living relatives. While taking part in a bombing raid on Cologne, he is shot in the back. The resulting injury means Toby is paralysed below the waist and uses a wheelchair. At first he goes to live with his uncle and aunt but later is sent to convalesce in Wales with his old school teacher who is also a family friend. It is at this point that the book, which is written as a diary, begins. Toby is being haunted by a many-legged, evil and shadowy presence that the young airmen comes to believe is the Devil himself.