Above you can see the rather striking UK paperback cover for THE DEVIL’S DETECTIVE. The first in a planned duology by Simon Kurt Unsworth, it is published in the UK by Del Rey on February 25th, 2016. Here’s the synopsis…
Welcome to Hell.
Solving crimes was the purpose of the Information Men, yet they almost never achieved it, and even when they did, the facts they scraped free were lost, buried again in the labyrinthine mess of the Bureaucracy.
When an unidentified, brutalised body is discovered, the case is assigned to Thomas Fool. But how do you investigate a murder where death is commonplace and everyone is guilty of something?
The novel is published in the US by Doubleday, and is out now in hardcover — it will be published in paperback in the US on ??, 2016. Below are the UK and US hardback covers…
Here is just a selection of the great reviews the novel has received so far…
‘A grand, nightmarish page-turner that will have you riveted no matter how much you’d prefer to look away.’ — Kirkus
‘An entertaining Dantean spin on the police procedural… Appropriately awash with gore and bodily fluids, THE DEVIL’S DETECTIVE is damned good.’ — Financial Times
‘Unsworth’s care in constructing an imaginary world enables him to make the most of his debut’s challenging concept: a hard-boiled detective novel set in Hell itself… Unsworth offers intriguing variations on traditional themes and some memorably hair-raising prose…’ — Publishers Weekly
‘Hell as the setting for a noir investigation turns out to be as fun as it sounds in THE DEVIL’S DETECTIVE. Inventive and pacy, Simon Kurt Unsworth has created a world – underworld? – distinctly his own.’ — Andrew Pyper
‘There is much to love with THE DEVIL’S DETECTIVE. The depiction of Hell is original, with it being less of a torture chamber and more of a place for continued hard work for the unworthy, and the world building is great… The novel is dark and full of twists and originality, and it’s suitable for anyone wanting to get into fantasy with a supernatural element.’ — Starburst