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Fritz Agency
Christian Dittus
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English
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THE DEVIL'S DETECTIVE

Simon Kurt Unsworth

The hunt for a serial-killer. The Wire meets Clive Barker in this tense thriller set in Hell.
An unidentified, brutalised body. A cowed and fearful populace. A society on the edge of collapse. No support from the authorities. Internecine political intrigue. More defiled bodies. Lies and rumours and false trails. An investigation under these conditions would be a tough proposition at the best of times. But it's all the harder when it takes place in Hell...

THE SORROWFUL follows Fool, one of Hell's 'Information Men', as he attempts to discover the identity of a vicious killer. But how do you investigate murder in a place where death, torture, and slavery are commonplace? Or when your main suspect-pool is a legion of demons? With no memory of his past, and no idea why this case matters to him so much, Fool determines to solve the mystery. His search will lead him to the man whose roots reach deep into every circle of Hell. He will visit the darkest places where the oldest demons live, where they jealously guard their privacy, and where things exist that have no name.

Welcome to Hell, where skinless demons patrol the lakes, gardens of flame burn things into existence, and the waves of Limbo wash against the outer walls with the souls of the Damned floating on their surface, waiting to be collected.

Simon Unsworth's most recent collection is the critically acclaimed QUIET HOUSES, which was long-listed for the Edge Hill Short Story Collection prize. His short story "The Church on the Island" was nominated for the 2008 World Fantasy Award. His work has been published in a number of anthologies including Dark Horse's Lovecraft Unbound, PS Publishing's Postscripts and Gray Friar Press's Where the Heart Is. THE SORROWFUL is his break-out book. Simon is currently working on two proposed sequels to THE SORROWFUL.
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Published 2015-03-01 by Doubleday

Comments

Unsworth, a British author of numerous horror and supernatural short stories, makes his book-length debut, and it's a rousing success. The story is well crafted, and the setting is ingeniously conceived: Hell is a real, tactile place, with a bureaucracy and corporate structure. We've seen other novels set in Hell, but we haven't seen a Hell quite like this. ...another novel would be most welcome.

Readers of mystery stories looking to dip their toes into the waters of speculative fiction may find something to rave about in The Devil's Detective, the debut novel by British author Simon Kurt. Read more...

With the character of Fool, Simon Kurt Unsworth has crafted a hero among the damned. Original, tense, and full of twists, this is one hell of a great read. - Hugh Howey

Dark and luminous, compelling and insidious, The Devil's Detective is a novel that transcends genre. - Michael Marshall

I think this might be the most whimsical murder story ever told. The Devil's Detective is relentlessly creative, fearlessly witty, and completely twisted. Naturally, I loved it. - Chelsea Cain

With wit, ingenuity and prodigious timing, first-time British novelist Unsworth imagines an unsettling afterlife that at times feels uncomfortably close to some of the more unbearable regions of our waking dreams. The whodunit aspects of this novel may, in the end, be less interesting than the phantasmagorical details surrounding it. But that's far less a complaint than a compliment of the author's visionary gifts. A grand, nightmarish page-turner that will have you riveted no matter how much you'd prefer.

Inventive and intriguing--Unsworth turns a journey through Hell into a heavenly read. - Alison Littlewood