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The Devil Aspect

Written by: Craig Russell
Narrated by: Julian Rhind-Tutt
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Publisher's Summary

Steeped in the folklore of Eastern Europe, and set in the shadow of Nazi darkness erupting just beyond the Czech border, this bone-chilling, richly imagined novel is propulsively entertaining, and impossible to put down.

Czechoslovakia, 1935: Viktor Kosárek, a newly trained psychiatrist who studied under Carl Jung, arrives at the infamous Hrad Orlu Asylum for the Criminally Insane. The facility is located in a medieval mountaintop castle surrounded by forests, on a site that is well known for concealing dark secrets going back many centuries. The asylum houses six inmates - the country's most treacherous killers - known to the terrified public as the Devil's Six. Viktor intends to use a new medical technique to prove that these patients share a common archetype of evil, a phenomenon he calls The Devil Aspect. Yet as he begins to learn the stunning secrets of these patients, he must face the unnerving possibility that these six may share a darker truth.

Meanwhile, in Prague, fear grips the city as a phantom serial killer emerges in the dark alleys. Police investigator Lukas Smolak, desperate to locate the culprit (a copycat of Jack the Ripper), turns to Viktor and the doctors at Hrad Orlu for their expertise with the psychotic criminal mind. And Viktor finds himself wrapped up in a case more terrifying than he could have ever imagined. 

©2019 Craig Russell (P)2019 Random House Audio

What the critics say

"A seasoned writer, Russell keeps the police case moving at a good clip...but nothing to match the ending, which offers more twists than a Chubby Checker album. A smart, atmospheric, and entertaining read but not for the Jung and easily Freudened." (Kirkus)  

"A horror story, a novel of psychological terror, or simply a mystery in a historical setting, The Devil Aspect is all three and more. It’s a novel the reader will remember and continue to think about long after that final sentence is read." (New York Journal of Books)

"Steeped in the chilling folklore of Eastern Europe and echoing the dread of a barbaric war to come, The Devil Aspect snatches the reader by the lapels for a thrilling, twisting trip through the darkest corridors of the human mind." (Daniel H. Wilson, New York Times best-selling author of Robopocalypse

"[A] beguiling and gruesome new horror thriller...a wildly entertaining story that grabs you on page one and drags you into its dark world kicking and screaming...Russell has created a truly frightening story, one that gets under your skin slowly, then goes deep, like the tip of a butcher knife." (Danielle Trussoni, The New York Times Book Review)

What listeners say about The Devil Aspect

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great, but

It was great. But it was also an unreliable narrator story. I hate those. I always feel cheated. Yeah, the payoff sucked big time, but the story up to that point was excellent, and beautifully written.
I remember feeling so furious when I first read/listened to this one, the ending bothered me so much. But it wasn't as bad the second time around, because you could see how much care the author took in setting it up.

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