The Demonologist

In our Halloween edition of Friday Reads we strongly hinted (alright, we said) that we’d be giving away copies of The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper, donated to us by our sister imprint Orion Fiction. Well here it is, we have five advance copies to give away, well ahead of publication! (It doesn’t come out until April).

Here’s a reminder of what it’s about:

Professor David Ullman is among the world’s leading authorities on demonic literature. Not that he’s a believer. He sees what he teaches as a branch of the imagination and nothing more. So when offered a luxury trip to Venice to consult on a ‘phenomenon’, he accepts, taking his 11-year-old daughter Tess with him. But what he witnesses in the tiny attic room shakes him to the core: a man restrained in a chair, clearly insane. But what David hears the man say is worse. The voice of his father, dead for 30 years, repeating the last words he ever spoke to his son. Words that have left scars – and a mystery – behind.

Terrified, David is determined to leave with Tess as quickly as possible. But he can’t shake the feeling that something is following him. And then, before his eyes on the roof of their hotel, Tess disappears. But before she falls into the Grand Canal’s waters, speaking in that same dead tongue of his father, she manages to utter a final plea: Find me.

What follows is a gripping (and terrifying) pilgrimage across America as David is forced to act as witness to the worst things that humans are capable of doing to one another, fuelled by the promise that if he can determine the name of the demon holding his daughter hostage, he will win her back. It’s pacy, well-written and has a perfect balance between the supernatural and the everyday evil found in men’s hearts.

To enter, just answer the following question: Which epic poem saw Satan say “Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven”? Send your answers in an email with the subject ‘The Demonologist’ to competitions@orionbooks.co.uk, including your postal details, before midnight on Monday 14th December. You can read our terms and conditions here. Good luck!