How we explain the evils of the world - and the darkest parts of ourselves - has preoccupied humans throughout history.

In The Devil''s Best Trick, Randall Sullivan investigates historical, religious and cultural conceptions of evil, from Biblical times to European witch hunts to the devil-worshipping ''Black Mass'' ceremony. He travels to Mexico to participate in the ''Hour of the Witches'' - an annual ceremony in which hundreds of people congregate in the jungle south of Vera Cruz to negotiate terms with El Diablo. He takes us through the most famous exorcism in American history. And he delivers original reporting on the shocking story of a small town in Texas that, in 1988, unravelled into paranoia and panic after a seventeen-year-old boy was found hanging from a tree and rumours about Satanic worship and cults flourished.

Nimble and expertly researched, The Devil''s Best Trick brilliantly melds cultural and historical commentary with a suspenseful true-crime narrative. Randall Sullivan, whose reportage and narrative skill has been called ''extraordinary'' and ''enthralling'' by Rolling Stone, takes on a bold task in this book that is both biography of the Devil and a look at how evil manifests in the world.