Description

From New York Times bestselling author and Mountain Goats singer/songwriter John Darnielle, an epic, gripping novel about murder, truth, artistic obsession, and the dangers of storytelling.

Gage Chandler is descended from kings. That’s what his mother always told him.

Chandler is a true crime writer, with one grisly success – and movie adaptation – to his name, along with a series of subsequent lesser efforts that have paid the bills but not much more. But now he is being offered the chance for his big break: to move into the house – which locals call ‘The Devil House’ – in which a briefly notorious pair of murders occurred, apparently the work of disaffected 1980s teens. He begins his research with diligence and enthusiasm, but soon the story leads him into a puzzle he never expected – his own work and what it means, the very core of what he does and who he is.

Publisher Review

'Quietly, as if stealing in on cat's paws, [John Darnielle has] become, as a novelist, unignorable ... His third novel, Devil House, is terrific: confident, creepy, a powerful and soulful page-turner. I had no idea where it was going, in the best possible sense ... It's never quite the book you think it is. It's better.' -- Dwight Garner * The New York Times * 'This smart, twisty novel about true crime books and the 1980s "Satanic panic" is a fine fit for him and his best so far ... he's excellent at getting into the uncomfortable details of abusive homes and how fear sparks an urge to escape both physically and creatively ... An impressively meta work that delivers the pleasures of true-crime while skewering it.' * Kirkus, starred review * '[R]iveting ... Darnielle flays the conventions of true crime to reveal the macabre and ordinary brutality behind sensationalised stories of violence ... This masterwork of suspense is as careful with its sharp takes as it is with the bread crumbs it slowly drops on the way to its stunning end. It operates perfectly on many levels, resulting in a must-read for true crime addicts and experimental fiction fans alike.' * Publishers Weekly, starred review * 'With Devil House, his extraordinarily ambitious third novel, Darnielle proves his versatility yet again. This remarkable shapeshifter of a tale changes form, perspective and even relative truth as it pleases, but never loses its voice ... Darnielle steers his dark vessel with dexterity, wit and stunning inventiveness ... A triumph from an always exciting storyteller.' -- Matthew Jackson * BookPage, starred review * 'Masterful ... Often tense, lyrically dazzling and iced with a thick layer of irreverent affinity for the fringes of pop culture, the result is top-notch storytelling ... Suspenseful, brilliant and chaotically addicting, Devil House triumphs as a page-turning metafictional treatise on the power of narratives cloaked in the trappings of a certifiable true crime classic.' -- Zack Ruskin * San Francisco Chronicle * 'Darnielle's skillfully refracted presentation ... is as worth sticking around for as the tender and tragic stories that reveal themselves within his house of mirrors.' -- R. E. Hawley * Gawker * 'In his third (and quite possibly best) novel, Darnielle sets his scopes a little wider ... [Devil House] teems with teeth-chattering tension ... Come for the gripping true crime tale, stay for the heartbreaking deconstruction of our voyeuristic fascination with real-life murder.' -- Thom Dunn * Boing Boing * 'A visceral and bravura subversion of the true-crime genre, Devil House is an empathetic forensic examination of those left behind after the blood has been mopped, body parts collected, and vultures have gorged their fill. A sense of dread permeates Darnielle's latest opus, leaving you wondering how much we can ever truly know about the dark secrets communities carry in their collective consciousness.' -- Chris Flynn, author of The Mammoth 'Like his best songs, John Darnielle's startling and tender new novel radiates out in all directions from the bomb blast of teenagehood. It is a novel about the things we want to believe: about conspiracies and rumours and states of wonder, about monsters of convenience and dreams of escape. It turns to face the horror with disarming kindness, and it implicates us all.' -- Miles Allinson, author of In Moonland '[A] brilliant novel ... Darnielle skillfully navigates the difficult point of view, pulling the reader ever tighter into the narrative ... Darnielle impressively dramatises the writing of a true crime book and the massively deleterious effect the process has on a person genuinely concerned with the ethics of what they're doing ... Darnielle renders this dilemma - and the bad-taste curiosity that compels people to read and write true crime despite reservations - with such depth and clarity that it feels like he's somehow culpable too. That's good fiction writing.' -- Bradley Babendir * The A.V. Club * 'Devil House can be read as an indictment of the true crime genre, specifically of the way stories are concocted to explain often-unfathomable tragedies, and of how some stories take precedence over others regardless of their truth ... A feel for time and place is also what Darnielle's novels are known for.' -- Laura Miller * Slate * 'In achingly tragic retellings, there is more to both crimes than initially appears to be the case in this labyrinthine quest for the truth. This should draw true-crime devotees as well as crime and general-fiction readers.' -- Bridget Thoreson * Booklist * 'If true crime is an addiction, Devil House is a novelist's cure. It's a multilayered, fictional story of some horrific murders, their victims and perpetrators, and the man who sets out to tell their tales ... [there are] subtle hints Darnielle drops in that [point] to our unhealthy relationship with true crime [but] ... there's no finger pointing, just an expanding perspective that shows that these stories, structured for our satisfaction, leave pain in their wake.' -- Carolyn Kellogg * The Boston Globe * 'Devil House has all the gross-out hallmarks of horror and true crime while also questioning the moral implications of the genres.' -- Mark Athitakis * Los Angeles Times * '[A] fascinating hybrid of gothic horror, the true crime format, and something stranger ... [Darnielle] is also masterful at sketching out characters with deep sympathy, at capturing ambiance and group dynamics, and never fails to keep his own voice present, a personable tone anchoring unsettling stories. It's an effective and enjoyable technique for a true crime narrative; what I absolutely love about Devil House is the way Darnielle is playing with that. This is fiction, not true crime, despite its use of the format and its many references to actual cases. Devil House focuses on that distinction; more than that, the novel is feeling its way, quite emotionally, around the ethical quandaries inherent in telling stories about real people and events ... a heady, thoughtful piece of metafiction ... Crime-thriller hooks, emotional and philosophical reflection, and one of the most subtle and devastating endings I've ever read: Devil House is a novel I know I'll be returning to.' -- Jake Casella Brookins * he Chicago Review of Books * 'Devil House is a thrillingly experimental novel ... Darnielle weaves together an empathetic meditation on the people who live beneath the notice of society - and narrative - until tragedy strikes.' * Shelf Awareness, starred review * 'Devil House is not a novel about karma or comeuppance. It is a portrait - sometimes direct, sometimes refracted - of a man realising that his career, combined with his powerful imagination, has taken him far from his morals. In many such narratives, the career wins. Refreshingly, in Devil House, the morals do.' -- Lily Meyer * NPR * '[A] gripping true crime novel, a darkly gleeful romp through the tropes of true crime as a genre, and an increasingly painful series of questions about what it costs to make art from someone else's life and death ... a nesting doll of a book ... Darnielle is, I think, one of our best writers on class and on the way this country has failed its poor ... Darnielle's able to excavate the ways that terrible pressure can result in violence even from the most good-hearted people, and he's able to show that even the most mean-hearted people deserve a measure of empathy.' -- Leah Schnelbach * tor.com * Praise for Universal Harvester: '[A] brilliant second novel ... What appears to be a chilling horror tale is also a perfectly rendered story about family and loss ... Darnielle is a master at building suspense, and his writing is propulsive and urgent; it's nearly impossible to stop reading ... Darnielle's novel is beyond worthwhile; it's a major work by an author who is quickly becoming one of the brightest stars in American fiction.' -- Michael Schaub * The Los Angeles Times * Praise for Universal Harvester: 'Grows in menace as the pages stack up ... more sensitive than one would expect from a more traditional tale of dread.' -- Joe Hill * New York Times Book Review * Praise for Wolf in White Van: '[A]rresting, enigmatic ... Darnielle's subject becomes the labyrinthine twists and turns of memory and self-building consciousness ... Wolf in White Van is a stunning meditation on the power of escape, and on the cat-and-mouse contest the self plays to deflect its own guilt.' -- Ethan Gilsdorf * The New York Times Book Review *