The Devil’s Detective by Simon Kurt Unsworth

Thomas Fool is an Information Man in Hell. As an Information Man, he investigates cases of violence and death; and there are many. Thomas thinks he’s been in Hell about six years. Before that, his soul floated in the sea of Limbo that surrounds Hell, until it was pulled out by a demon and embodied in the human form he wears now. Fool, as he calls himself, does not know why he is in Hell or what he must atone for, because no human who is fished from Limbo and sent here remembers any part of their human lives. Through suffering, they are supposed to atone until, perhaps, they will be Elevated into heaven.

Simon Kurt Unsworth composes a convincing noir detective story in his debut novel, The Devil’s Detective, but his real achievements are the sense of dread and despair that fills the pages, and the geography of Hell, limned in exqu... Read More

The Devil’s Evidence by Simon Kurt Unsworth

The Devil’s Evidence (2016) is Simon Kurt Unsworth’s follow up to last year’s horror novel, The Devil’s Detective. In this book, Thomas Fool, the Devil’s Information Man, is sent to Heaven to try to solve a mystery, and soon he is trying to stop a war.

Since the purpose of Hell is to promote human suffering, it isn’t surprising that Fool suffered terrible losses in the first book, and it seems as if there wouldn’t be much left for him to lose in this book. That’s not the case. Unsworth manages to find a way to cause Fool just as much, if not more, pain and anguish in The Devil’s Evidence, in part because Fool gets to spend s... Read More