A History of Fear

Starred review from October 3, 2022
Did the devil really make him do it? That question haunts Dumas’s stellar debut, a complex whydunit. American Grayson Hale, a University of Edinburgh postgraduate student, has been convicted of murdering a colleague, Liam Stewart, whose strangled corpse was found in a loch months after his disappearance. Hale confessed, but claimed he had been under the influence of the devil. Following Hale’s apparent suicide in prison, journalist Daniella Barclay, who covered the case, obtains access to the murderer’s memoir. Barclay presents Hale’s own account of the events preceding the murder, which starts with his meeting a mysterious man who offers him much needed money if he agrees to help write a book on the history of the devil in Scotland. Despite misgivings over his employer and several false starts, Hale agrees, only to become trapped in a nightmarish world where he’s harassed by winged fiends and seems to have become a catalyst for violence in others. Vivid prose enhances the twisty plot; Liam’s Scottish accent is “melodic yet underpinned by something hard and jagged, like clear water flowing over a bed of pointed rocks.” Admirers of Andrew Pyper’s The Demonologist will be riveted. Agent: Maria Whelan, InkWell Management.

Starred review from March 1, 2023

After infamous murderer Grayson Hale, a.k.a. the Devil's Advocate, is found dead in his jail cell, a journalist uncovers a manuscript in which Hale describes how his killing of a classmate was orchestrated by the devil. In the manuscript, Hale is a U.S. postgrad studying in Edinburgh when a mysterious man hires him to write about the history of the devil in Scotland. From the beginning, it is apparent that the manuscript's narrator has struggled psychologically, as he describes his affliction from Satanophobia since the age of 13 and a turbulent family history involving his cultish, religious father and heartless mother. With intensifying visions (or are they real?) of winged demons chasing Hale through the streets of Edinburgh and shadowy figures lurking in the shadows, the novel maintains an atmosphere of dread as it reaches its chilling conclusion. VERDICT Riveting literary horror superbly realized in audio, highlighted by narrator Graham Halstead, who effectively conveys Hale's disintegrating mental state. Narrators Toni Frutin, Shiromi Arserio, Jennifer Aquino, and Gary Tiedemann further enhance the audio by giving voice to reporters, interviewees, and medical personnel.--Phillip Oliver

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