1935. As Europe prepares itself for a calamitous war, six homicidal lunatics - the so-called 'Devil's Six' - are confined in a remote castle asylum in rural Czechoslovakia. Each patient has their own dark story to tell and Dr Viktor Kosárek, a young psychiatrist using revolutionary techniques, is tasked with unlocking their murderous secrets.
At the same time, a terrifying killer known as 'Leather Apron' is butchering victims across Prague. Successfully eluding capture, it would seem his depraved crimes are committed by the Devil himself.
Maybe they are... and what links him with the insane inmates of the Castle of the Eagles?
Only the Devil knows. And it is up to Viktor to find out.***
[The appearance of that voice, of that dark personality, was like some terrible black sun dawning, filling the castle's tower room with a shining darkness and sinking with malice deep into the dense, thick stone of its ancient walls]***
(Constable, 5 March 2019, 496 pages, ebook, ARC from @littlebrown via # NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed)
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This is my first time reading this author. If this amazing book is anything to go by it certainly won't be my last. This is the best book I've read so far this year. I doubt if anything will top it in the few scarce days left this month. I loved The Devil Aspect. I adored every word and every page with words on it. This is one corker of a book. I'm actually drooling with delirious joy when I read this. I think this is the first time I've read a book set in an asylum so the made the book stand out. I loved Viktor's sessions with his patients who were dark and disturbing yet fascinating. The Devil Aspect is the kind of book you don't want to stop reading once you start. The book gets darker and darker as Viktor's has sessions with his patients and Leather Apron remains at large. The end of the book when Leather Apron is revealed floored me. Well done for fooling me! I cannot recommend this book enough.