Molly Fountain Books in Order

The Molly Fountain books make up a very small, loosely connected branch of Wheatley's occult fiction. There are only two of them, To the Devil, A Daughter and The Satanist, and they do not work like a tightly serialized pair. What links them is a modern setting, a strong female point of entry into the mystery, and the same dark concern with cults, vows, and the danger of treating evil as something theatrical rather than real.

Molly herself is an interesting Wheatley heroine. She is a war widow and a successful thriller writer, clever enough to notice when something is badly wrong and stubborn enough to keep asking questions after a safer person would stop. In To the Devil, A Daughter, that instinct pulls her toward the case of a young girl who seems to be caught in a design far more sinister than ordinary crime. The book starts with an uneasy, almost social mystery feel, then becomes a full occult chase.

The atmosphere is modern, but only on the surface.

Wheatley likes to place these books in smart houses, rented villas, respectable rooms, and ordinary postwar routines, then show how quickly all that order can crack. Priests who are not to be trusted, old promises, secret ceremonies, and the sense of being watched all creep in slowly. That is part of what gives the Molly Fountain material its edge. The evil is not tucked away in some medieval ruin. It is near the everyday world.

The Satanist is more loosely tied to Molly and shifts attention toward another woman's attempt to understand her husband's death, but the pattern is similar. Personal grief opens the door. Investigation becomes infiltration. By the time the truth is clear, the threat is far larger than the characters first imagined.

So this is best thought of as a tiny shared world rather than a standard series. If you like Wheatley when he moves from polite society into occult panic, and if you want that movement seen through women who are active participants rather than decorative bystanders, the Molly Fountain books are a strong place to look.