The Demonologist
On sale
11th July 2013
Price: £18.99
International Thriller Awards, 2014
Professor David Ullman is among the world’s leading authorities on demonic literature. Not that he’s a believer. He sees what he teaches as a branch of the imagination and nothing more. So when offered a luxury trip to Venice to consult on a ‘phenomenon’, he accepts, taking his 11-year-old daughter Tess with him.
Amidst the decadent splendour of the city, David makes his way to the address he’s been asked to visit. What he witnesses in the tiny attic room shakes him to the core: a man restrained in a chair, clearly insane. But what David hears the man say is worse. The voice of his father, dead for 30 years, repeating the last words he ever spoke to his son. Words that have left scars – and a mystery – behind.
Terrified, David is determined to leave with Tess as quickly as possible. But he can’t shake the feeling that something is following him. And then, before his eyes on the roof of their hotel, Tess disappears. But before she falls into the Grand Canal’s waters, she utters a plea: Find me.
At once frightening and deeply moving, Andrew Pyper’s page-turning thriller explores the lengths a father will go to find his daughter, and the darkness he is prepared to confront along the way.
Read by Jeff Harding. A native of New England, Jeff Harding has appeared in television productions as varied as HOWARD’S END, THE FAST SHOW, FATHER TED and NCS MANHUNT. He has recorded many audiobooks, including Orion’s THE LAST TEMPLAR, ROBERT LUDLUM’S BOURNE TROLOGY and the best-selling Dan Brown’s THE DA VINCI CODE.
(p) 2013 Orion Publishing Group
Amidst the decadent splendour of the city, David makes his way to the address he’s been asked to visit. What he witnesses in the tiny attic room shakes him to the core: a man restrained in a chair, clearly insane. But what David hears the man say is worse. The voice of his father, dead for 30 years, repeating the last words he ever spoke to his son. Words that have left scars – and a mystery – behind.
Terrified, David is determined to leave with Tess as quickly as possible. But he can’t shake the feeling that something is following him. And then, before his eyes on the roof of their hotel, Tess disappears. But before she falls into the Grand Canal’s waters, she utters a plea: Find me.
At once frightening and deeply moving, Andrew Pyper’s page-turning thriller explores the lengths a father will go to find his daughter, and the darkness he is prepared to confront along the way.
Read by Jeff Harding. A native of New England, Jeff Harding has appeared in television productions as varied as HOWARD’S END, THE FAST SHOW, FATHER TED and NCS MANHUNT. He has recorded many audiobooks, including Orion’s THE LAST TEMPLAR, ROBERT LUDLUM’S BOURNE TROLOGY and the best-selling Dan Brown’s THE DA VINCI CODE.
(p) 2013 Orion Publishing Group
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Reviews
A stunningly crafted, intelligent and moving horror story ... this is a subtle, revealing exposition of the power of the devil. There is an elegance to the storytelling, and a command of what evil may mean, that lingers with you long after the end
Effective, literate, nightmarish
Genuinely terrifying, don't-read-late-at-night stuff. Thrilling, compelling and beautifully written
The Demonologist is that rare thing - a novel that is both genuinely terrifying and erudite. The research is excellent and lightly worn, the pace and cleverness of the plot thrilling, one of the most exciting works of fiction I've read for some time
The Demonologist is a smart psychological thriller. Carefully crafted, claustrophobic and deeply, deeply creepy
Richly crafted, deliriously scary and compulsively page-turning from beginning to end. Imagine The Exorcist and The Da Vinci Code as penned by Daphne du Maurier. Don't miss this one!
As compelling and smoothly chilling a tale as you'll find this year. The Demonologist shows an enormously gifted writer at the top of his game, producing a novel of eerie menace and unique depth. Those of us who write supernatural stories do not throw the names Ira Levin, William Peter Blatty, and Peter Straub around lightly. You'll be hearing all three associated with Mr Pyper soon, and all such comparisons are warranted, the highest praise I can offer
A literary horror story that values smarts over scares . . . a book about a father and daughter, and how far a parent will go to protect a child
A smart, thrilling, utterly unnerving novel. Pyper's gift is that he deeply respects his readers, yet still insists on reducing them to quivering children. I like that in a writer