Thanks to TCK Publishing for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.
Please note that this review contains spoilers.
I should have relished The Devil’s Whispers. For an ardent Gothicist this novel appears to have it all: a creepy, labyrinthine castle, a monstrous villain, devilish females, body horror, mystery, possession, and frightening jeopardy. However, like a substandard tribute band, all the novel left me with was a desire to enjoy the real thing.
The Devil’s Whispers is an attempt at a recreation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, even down to its epistolary form. In Transylvania’s place we are presented with a Welsh castle near Cardiff. Lawyer Jonathan Harker… apologies, Gerard Woodward… has been summoned to the Castle to conduct legal business for the dying Lord Mathers. However, soon it becomes clear that all is not well and Woodward is imprisoned. On escaping his locked room he encounters the beautiful Lady Helena and her sinister doppelganger. Woodward is abused and traumatised, eventually only escaping the Castle with the help of a double-agent servant.
Meanwhile, all is not well in London. Whilst Woodward’s wife Mina… apologies Raelyn… frets about her husband, children are being kidnapped, animals mutilated, and a monstrous creature terrorises the city, much to the concern of Raelyn, her friend Lucy… apologies Jayda… and Professor Van Helsing… apologies Father Malcolm (by now I am sure you get the picture). There is even a zoophagous character riffing on Dracula‘s Renfield.
Sharing Mina Harker’s fate, Raelyn comes under the influence of the novel’s evil protagonists (the Xana) before she is saved by her friends. The Xana are nowhere near as well-developed as Stoker’s vampires although they share many of the same traits – there is an absence of rationale explaining their characteristics and their vulnerabilities.
Where The Devil’s Whispers does depart from Dracula it fails to convince. Cardiff is unrecognisable and never plausibly rendered as a stand-in for Transylvania. In an attempt to afford Raelyn Woodward more agency than Mina Harker, Hault makes Raelyn a medical doctor with her own practice. However, the remarkable nature of such an arrangement in 1903 is never addressed. The dialogue disconcertingly vacillates from turn-of-the-century to modern day idiom (‘Who the hell is Maria?’). The novel’s conclusion is rushed and perfunctory, with Raelyn and Gerard prevailing seemingly because that is what happened to their progenitors, Mina and Jonathan Harker.
All of this is not to say that the novel isn’t readable. This reader was carried along by the novel’s events. But, the bottom line is faced with a choice, read Dracula not The Devil’s Whispers. And if you have already read Dracula, read it again.
Publication: February 20th 2022
Publisher: TCK Publishing
Pages: 239 pages
Source: TCK Publishing
Genre: Fiction, Epistolary, Gothic, Horror
My Rating: ⛤⛤
Summary:
Famed British lawyer Gerard Woodward is summoned to an ancient Welsh castle to assist a dying lord in his final affairs. But as his host slips closer to death, Gerard begins to feel less like a guest and more like a prisoner. When he finds himself locked inside his room, he realizes he must escape.
After finding his way out of his room, Gerard begins to wonder if he was safer locked inside. The labyrinthine halls echo secrets. A terrible wail and the rattling of chains sets his nerves on end. Something sinister is happening within the walls of Mathers Castle, and when he descends into the dungeons, he discovers a horrible secret…
In nearby London, children vanish into the night, animals are horribly mutilated, and a savage creature stalks the shadows. When Gerard’s wife, Raelyn, becomes the creature’s next target, his need to escape reaches a fever pitch. He must get out alive so he can dispel the evil that threatens to destroy his beloved Raelyn… and the rest of us.
Precarious Gothic 