Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Categories
Thriller / suspense fiction

A HISTORY OF FEAR

Luke Dumas

An eerie literary suspense debut following the harrowing downfall of a tortured graduate student who's been nicknamed the Devil's Advocate for his sensational crime: murdering a class-mate, then claiming the Devil made him do it.

The Devil is in Scotland. Grayson Hale, the most infamous murderer in Scotland, is better known by a different name: the Devil's Advocate. The twenty-five-year-old grad student rose to notoriety when he confessed to the slaughter of his classmate Liam Stewart, claiming the Devil made him do it. When Hale is found hanged in his prison cell, officers uncover a handwritten manuscript that promises to answer the question that's haunted the nation for years: was Hale a lunatic, or had he been telling the truth all along? Unnervingly, Hale doesn't fit the bill of a killer. The first-person narrative that centers this novel reveals an acerbic young atheist, newly enrolled at the University of Edinburgh to carry on the legacy of his recently deceased father. In need of cash, he takes a job ghostwriting a mysterious book for a dark stranger, but has misgivings when the project begins to reawaken his satanophobia, a rare condition that causes him to live in terror that the Devil is after him. As he struggles to disentangle fact from fear, Grayson's world is turned upside-down after events force him to confront his growing suspicion that he's working for the one he has feared all this time - and that the book is only the beginning of their partnership. A HISTORY OF FEAR is a propulsive foray into the darkness of the human psyche, marrying a dread-inducing atmosphere and heart-palpitating storytelling. Luke Dumas was born and raised in San Diego, California, and received his master's degree in creative writing from the University of Edinburgh. A History of Fear is his debut novel. Luke Dumas's writing has appeared or is forthcoming in literary journals, and So Say We All Press's anthology The Whole Alphabet: The Light and The Dark (June 2021).

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Book Published 2022-12-06 by Atria

Comments

[A] stellar debut, a complex whydunit... Admirers of Andrew Pyper's The Demonologist will be riveted. Read more...

A delicious walk along the razor's edge between the imagined and the supernatural, A History of Fear is candy for readers who like their thrills real and their horror a worrying whisper in their head.

A History of Fear deftly plays with perception and will have you questioning what is real and what horrors we are capable of. A modern-day Gothic tale with claws, it latches into you and doesn't let go.

A History of Fear succeeds on so many levels -as a haunting tale of the supernatural, a harrowing story of suspense, and a stark warning about the power of our inner demons. I consumed this book breathlessly, and every time I think of its jaw-dropping ending, I feel a chill all over again.

A History of Fear presents itself as a disquieting cache of nightmares, a nested doll narrative that reads like a found footage Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg. Reader beware: this novel is not safe and will have you questioning what's real for many sleepless nights to come.

A methodical story about evil - its mystery and its toll - takes its murderous narrator past the brink of sanity... It's a patient pursuit and a patient book, one that builds without the reader quite realizing it. It blurs the line between mental illness and something less definable, more supernatural and sinister. A muscular, enigmatic, and devilishly smart read. Read more...

...wildly unsettling, creepy blend of horror and thriller.... What makes this debut so chilling is that we desperately want to believe Hale, despite what that says about what's lurking outside our windows. Read more...

A History of Fear is a disorienting, creepy, paranoia-inducing reimagining of the devil made me do it tale. A clever, twisty novel, imbued with emotional and psychological insight. Luke's vision of Old Scratch left me thrilled and looking over my shoulder.

Czech: Euromedia ; Russian: Everbook/The House of Stories