Item: The Demonologist
Author: purplemoonmyst

by Andrew Pyper

Fans of The Historian won't be able to put down this spellbinding literary horror story in which a Columbia professor must use his knowledge of demonic mythology to rescue his daughter from the Underworld.

A stolen child.

An ancient evil.

A father's descent.

And the literary masterpiece that holds the key to his daughter's salvation.

Professor David Ullman is among the world's leading authorities on demonic literature, with special expertise in Milton's Paradise Lost. Not that David is a believer--he sees what he teaches as a branch of the imagination and nothing more. So when the mysterious Thin Woman arrives at his office and invites him to travel to Venice and witness a "phenomenon," he turns her down. She leaves plane tickets and an address on his desk, advising David that her employer is not often disappointed.

That evening, David's wife announces she is leaving him. With his life suddenly in shambles, he impulsively whisks his beloved twelve-year-old daughter, Tess, off to Venice after all. The girl has recently been stricken by the same melancholy moods David knows so well, and he hopes to cheer her up and distract them both from the troubles at home.

But what happens in Venice will change everything.

First, in a tiny attic room at the address provided by the Thin Woman, David sees a man restrained in a chair, muttering, clearly insane . . . but could he truly be possessed? Then the man speaks clearly, in the voice of David's dead father, repeating the last words he ever spoke to his son. Words that have left scars--and a mystery--behind.

When David rushes back to the hotel, he discovers Tess perched on the roof's edge, high above the waters of the Grand Canal. Before she falls, she manages to utter a final plea: Find me.

What follows is an unimaginable journey for David Ullman from skeptic to true believer. In a terrifying quest guided by symbols and riddles from the pages of Paradise Lost, David must track the demon that has captured his daughter and discover its name. If he fails, he will lose Tess forever.

I had asked the librarian for a recommended scary book and she took one look at all my christian books and came back with The Demonologist. It wasn't until I was finished with it that I realized what the author had accomplished.

He took what a majority of us is. Educated but not a believer. Then on a trajectory that mimics human nature almost perfectly he takes David through proof and a reason to be willing to undergo "testing" and shows his doubts and fears along the way. The doubts and fears is what all of us have. I could see myself in David. The book was so well written that I started to have the same doubts and fears. I used to see the devil as a dumb thing that lost a millenia ago but this book depicts the devil as smart cunning and knows how to get you to ALMOST belive what he is saying. For example, in the book when he confronts David he makes the argument that God is a ruthless being who demands total obedience but the Devil will "let" you have freedom if only we follow him. The author puts it much more eloquently than that but that is the gist of it. It was so well written that I felt I was there and the devil himself was trying to convince me that I should follow him to freedom. I am not going to tell you how the book ends because that would ruin the surprise. It is a mind bending book.

In true horror story fashion this books has some gory and unsettling themes. I was frighted at some of the things and I read this book in the daytime!

This book sucked me in and i read in a couple of hours. I literally could not put it down. It will take you on a thrilling ride through the demonic world.

Highly recommended.This review was originally posted on Adventures in Never Never Land

The Demonologist

by Andrew Pyper

Reviewed by Hillary on Mar 29, 2013

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