To The Last Page

Craig Russell is well-known for his dark crime fiction writing, but The Devil Aspect must surely be his more ambitious and entertaining work yet, moving out of detective fiction for an even darker ride through Gothic historical fiction and mythology that takes us from Veles the Slavic God of the Underworld to Jack the Ripper, from the Gates of Hell to the origins of the Holocaust, and later even a little bit further than that. There’s an irresistible dark fascination to The Devil Aspect right from the outset, where a dangerous maniac known as Leather Apron has just killed his fourth victim on the streets of Prague, his methods similar to the Jack the Ripper killings in Whitechapel. In Prague in 1935 however, there almost seems to be an epidemic of madness and mental breakdown on the streets as Dr Vikor Kosárek arrives in the city. He’s about to take up a post as clinical psychiatrist in the Hrad Orlů asylum, a castle with a dark past that currently houses just six inmates. These inma...