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Devil House

A Novel

by John Darnielle

Narrator John Darnielle

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Length 11 hours 17 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“Playing with form, voice, and the reader's expectations of how a novel should operate; Devil House is a thrilling, bracing, and unmissable reading experience. Darnielle's latest novel begins straightforward enough - a true crime writer moves into a house where brutal murders took place to research his next project. With each passing chapter, the story morphs and expands; masterfully carried along by Darnielle's incredible writing and nuanced characters. Come for the satanic murder but stay for the fascinating exploration of what it means to the truth about the past.”
— Caleb • Bookmarks

Bookseller recommendation

“A story about the often exploitative nature of the true crime genre written in intimate prose. ”
— Ben • Bookstore1Sarasota

Bookseller recommendation

“Devil House is the third novel by John Darnielle, Durham resident best known for his band The Mountain Goats... and it's a killer. The book centers on Gage Chandler, a best-selling true crime author known for physically immersing himself in each story. His latest project brings him to Milpitas, California, where he sets out to write the account of 'Devil House' and the unsolved 1980s murder that took place inside (which is fraught with Satanic Panic implications). There, he reckons with the nature of truth, the blurry boundaries between fact and fiction, and the very real people whose lives get chewed up by the true crime genre. Darnielle experiments with form here and it pays off—overall, Devil House is a beautifully crafted piece of meta-fiction that unfolds, with great purpose, through time and space. Probably one of my forever favorites.”
— Ryan • Quail Ridge Books

Bookseller recommendation

“John Darnielle interrogates the true crime genre’s highest aspirations and basest instincts. Devil House is a gripping read that questions what the true costs of salacious stories are, and who pays them.”
— Keith Mosman • Powell's Books

Summary
About the author
About the narrator

This program will include original music from the author and his bandmate Matt Douglas from The Mountain Goats.

"Darnielle brings a lyrical, literary tone to a novel that's part crime, part horror and wholly original."- Bookpage

From John Darnielle, the New York Times bestselling author and the singer-songwriter of the Mountain Goats, comes an epic, gripping novel about murder, truth, and the dangers of storytelling.

Gage Chandler is descended from kings. That’s what his mother always told him. Years later, he is a true crime writer, with one grisly success—and a movie adaptation—to his name, along with a series of subsequent less notable efforts. But now he is being offered the chance for the big break: to move into the house where a pair of briefly notorious murders occurred, apparently the work of disaffected teens during the Satanic Panic of the 1980s. Chandler finds himself in Milpitas, California, a small town whose name rings a bell––his closest childhood friend lived there, once upon a time. He begins his research with diligence and enthusiasm, but soon the story leads him into a puzzle he never expected—back into his own work and what it means, back to the very core of what he does and who he is.

Devil House is John Darnielle’s most ambitious work yet, a book that blurs the line between fact and fiction, that combines daring formal experimentation with a spellbinding tale of crime, writing, memory, and artistic obsession.

A Macmillan Audio production from MCD Books.

Fiction Mystery & Thriller Fiction - Literary

John Darnielle’s first novel, Wolf in White Van, was a New York Times bestseller, National Book Award nominee, and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for first fiction; his second Universal Harvester, was also a New York Times bestseller and was a finalist for the Locus Award. He lives in Durham, North Carolina, with his wife and sons.