Devil’s Key
Elisabeth Graves
Northampton House Press
September 8th, 2016
Reviewed by Stuart Conover
Elisabeth Graves originally published Devil’s Key in 1999 as Svart Frikt, though this was recently translated into an English release. Without any details it is an interesting tale of a young college student working on her thesis.
First let me say that don’t let the synopsis of the novel (which can be found online) fool you, as the writing within the book is quite a bit clearer than the synopsis itself which almost had me not checking it out. If I didn’t have a special place in my heart for reading about authors or writers within a horror setting, I might not have read it and I’m honestly glad I decided to give it a try.
The book follows Lucy Fowler, and actually starts off quite dark as Lucy is raped and almost murdered. That isn’t the focus on the story though but is there to put her in the mindset we see her in throughout the novel. She is almost done with her thesis but with only one interview left to finish it off, and the midwife she has to interview being on an island in Florida, she felt that getting away might help her move past and be able to finish this chapter of her life. Only, the person she is set to interview is now confined to a psychiatric ward which throws her entire plan into chaos.
Due to a hurricane, Lucy becomes trapped there. During her stay she finds there is a ghost town whose residents all disappeared years before, and when deciding to write about it, things take a turn from the worse. An ancient evil, an ancient curse, and so much more all come into play as Lucy tries to get to the bottom of what happened.
This novel isn’t for everyone but some great writing and character development will have you wanting to find out what happens to the woman whose life is turned upside down right from the start. If you are in the mood for a different take on horror without following the same tropes we always see, Devil’s Key is worth checking out.
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