A History of Fear: A Novel

by Luke Dumas

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

What is it that fascinates us with the downfall of a main character? Do we root for them or just hope it never happens to us? Let this eerie debut horror novel help inform your answer. Use one hand to turn the page and the other to hide your eyes. And if the world falls out of balance – do know we warned you. Now. Turn that page.

This “disorienting, creepy, paranoia-inducing reimagining of the devil-made-me-do-it tale” (Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World) follows the harrowing downfall of a tortured graduate student arrested for murder.

Grayson Hale, the most infamous murderer in Scotland, is better known by a different name: the Devil’s Advocate. The twenty-five-year-old American grad student rose to instant notoriety when he confessed to the slaughter of his classmate Liam Stewart, claiming the Devil made him do it.

When Hale is found hanged in his prison cell, officers uncover a handwritten manuscript that promises to answer the question that’s haunted the nation for years: was Hale a lunatic, or had he been telling the truth all along?

The first-person narrative reveals an acerbic young atheist, newly enrolled at the University of Edinburgh to carry on the legacy of his recently deceased father. In need of cash, he takes a job ghostwriting a mysterious book for a dark stranger—but he has misgivings when the project begins to reawaken his satanophobia, a rare condition that causes him to live in terror that the Devil is after him. As he struggles to disentangle fact from fear, Grayson’s world is turned upside-down after events force him to confront his growing suspicion that he’s working for the one he has feared all this time—and that the book is only the beginning of their partnership.

“A modern-day Gothic tale with claws” (Jennifer Fawcett, author of Beneath the Stairs), A History of Fear marries dread-inducing atmosphere with heart-palpitating storytelling.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982199036
Publisher:	Atria Books
Publication date:	10/03/2023
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	34,131
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Luke Dumas is the author of the novel A History of Fear. His nonfiction has appeared in Literary Hub, Hobart, Last Exit, Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, and Nature, and more. He received his master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Edinburgh and is a graduate of the University of Chicago.

Editorial Reviews

"A methodical story about evil—its mystery and its toll—takes its murderous narrator past the brink of sanity. . . . Lean and propulsive, this dissection of evil marches forward with a deadly logic and sleight of hand, with occasional gaps filled in by an enterprising journalist and a Scottish information commissioner. The key is that we feel for Grayson as he leads us up to the brink of his terrible deed. The characters surrounding him, from his ghoulish family to his annoying roommate to his eventual victim, come to life on the page, all part of Grayson’s living nightmare. . . . It’s a patient pursuit and a patient book, one that builds without the reader quite realizing it. It blurs the line between mental illness and something less definable, more supernatural and sinister. A muscular, enigmatic, and devilishly smart read." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“[A] stellar debut, a complex whydunit . . . . Admirers of Andrew Pyper’s The Demonologist will be riveted.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"A delicious walk along the razor's edge between the imagined and the supernatural, A History of Fear is candy for readers who like their thrills real and their horror a worrying whisper in their head." —Andrew Pyper, author of The Demonologist and The Residence

“A History of Fear presents itself as a disquieting cache of nightmares, a nested doll narrative that reads like a found-footage Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg. Readers, beware: this novel is not safe and will have you questioning what's real for many sleepless nights to come.” —Clay McLeod Chapman, author of The Remaking, Whisper Down the Lane, and Ghost Eaters

"A History of Fear succeeds on so many levels—as a haunting tale of the supernatural, a harrowing story of suspense, and a stark warning about the power of our inner demons. I consumed this book breathlessly, and every time I think of its jaw-dropping ending, I feel a chill all over again." —Megan Collins, author of The Family Plot

"A History of Fear is a disorienting, creepy, paranoia-inducing reimagining of the devil-made-me-do-it tale. A clever, twisty novel, imbued with emotional and psychological insight. Luke's vision of Old Scratch left me thrilled and looking over my shoulder." —Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World and The Pallbearers Club

“A History of Fear deftly plays with perception and will have you questioning what is real and what horrors we are capable of. A modern-day Gothic tale with claws, it latches into you and doesn’t let go.” —Jennifer Fawcett, author of Beneath the Stairs

From the Publisher

★ 10/03/2022

Did the devil really make him do it? That question haunts Dumas’s stellar debut, a complex whydunit. American Grayson Hale, a University of Edinburgh postgraduate student, has been convicted of murdering a colleague, Liam Stewart, whose strangled corpse was found in a loch months after his disappearance. Hale confessed, but claimed he had been under the influence of the devil. Following Hale’s apparent suicide in prison, journalist Daniella Barclay, who covered the case, obtains access to the murderer’s memoir. Barclay presents Hale’s own account of the events preceding the murder, which starts with his meeting a mysterious man who offers him much needed money if he agrees to help write a book on the history of the devil in Scotland. Despite misgivings over his employer and several false starts, Hale agrees, only to become trapped in a nightmarish world where he’s harassed by winged fiends and seems to have become a catalyst for violence in others. Vivid prose enhances the twisty plot; Liam’s Scottish accent is “melodic yet underpinned by something hard and jagged, like clear water flowing over a bed of pointed rocks.” Admirers of Andrew Pyper’s The Demonologist will be riveted. Agent: Maria Whelan, InkWell Management. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

11/01/2022

DEBUT The American expatriate hero meets the Devil in this debut from Dumas. In Scotland, neurotic university student Grayson claims that the Devil possessed him to commit murder. Framed as his memoir, Grayson details his fanatical Christian childhood in California in alternating flashback chapters that hamper the pacing of his struggles with independent life abroad. An unreliable narrator, Grayson blames everyone but himself for his angst, but even so, his worst qualities are merely his high opinion of his own intellect and his cowardice. Needing cash, Grayson meets D.B., the Devil in human form, and is hired to write a strange book for him, but after a childhood like Grayson's, a mysterious, patient employer hardly seems frightening. However strange the material D.B. gives him to work with, Grayson's social anxiety always overshadows it. Eventually, the influence of Grayson's past mingles with his simmering jealousy towards a fellow student and ultimately ends in tragedy. VERDICT Scariest and most relatable for collections with a young adult readership tackling college in the near future.—Aaron Heil

Library Journal

Outcast American Grayson Hale follows in his father's footsteps to Scotland, where he allegedly kills in the name of Satan. An ensemble of narrators lends credibility to the illusion that this is a true story, along with the introduction and comments throughout by Toni Frutin— but it is fiction. The first-person story is masterfully delivered by Graham Halstead as Hale recounts his life as a confused young man. He is ignored by unloving parents and a fear of the devil, who sends horrible creatures to attack him, creatures only he can see. After his arrest for murder, he becomes infamous by insisting the devil forced him to kill. The narrators effectively instill an undertone of horror and helplessness, making listeners pity Hale. Are his visions real—or the product of a deranged mind? They keep us guessing. M.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2023 - AudioFile

Outcast American Grayson Hale follows in his father's footsteps to Scotland, where he allegedly kills in the name of Satan. An ensemble of narrators lends credibility to the illusion that this is a true story, along with the introduction and comments throughout by Toni Frutin— but it is fiction. The first-person story is masterfully delivered by Graham Halstead as Hale recounts his life as a confused young man. He is ignored by unloving parents and a fear of the devil, who sends horrible creatures to attack him, creatures only he can see. After his arrest for murder, he becomes infamous by insisting the devil forced him to kill. The narrators effectively instill an undertone of horror and helplessness, making listeners pity Hale. Are his visions real—or the product of a deranged mind? They keep us guessing. M.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2023 - AudioFile

★ 2022-09-10
A methodical story about evil—its mystery and its toll—takes its murderous narrator past the brink of sanity.

Grayson Hale has committed murder, claiming the devil made him do it. What makes this first-person novel so chilling is that Grayson, an American graduate student in Edinburgh, sounds completely sane, the product of an emotionally neglectful San Diego home who has suffered from satanophobia, or a paralyzing fear that the Adversary is coming for him. His parents, detached heads of a living-room church, barely gave him the time of day as he grew up neurotic and terrified. Now, in Scotland, an enigmatic stranger wants him to ghostwrite a book about the devil. The stranger, who goes by D.B., believes his countrymen no longer have a healthy fear and respect for Satan. Grayson really needs the money if he's going to pursue his doctorate. Of course, he has no idea what he’s getting into. Lean and propulsive, this dissection of evil marches forward with a deadly logic and sleight of hand, with occasional gaps filled in by an enterprising journalist and a Scottish information commissioner. The key is that we feel for Grayson as he leads us up to the brink of his terrible deed. The characters surrounding him, from his ghoulish family to his annoying roommate to his eventual victim, come to life on the page, all part of Grayson’s living nightmare. His bouts of satanophobia are characterized by visits from swarms of yellow-eyed fiends who crowd the aisle of the bus he rides. All the while he undergoes a crisis of faith; a one-time theological prodigy, he falls away from the calling even as its imagery fills his consciousness. It’s a patient pursuit and a patient book, one that builds without the reader quite realizing it. It blurs the line between mental illness and something less definable, more supernatural and sinister.

A muscular, enigmatic, and devilishly smart read.

Kirkus Reviews