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The Devil Walks
The Devil Walks
Aug 27, 2025 10:24 AM

Author:Anne Fine

The Devil Walks

'The devil walks . . . But the devil can make no headway if he has no help. We must invite him in . . .'

Raised in secrecy by a mother everyone thinks has gone mad, Daniel's only link to his past is the intricately built model of the family home - High Gates. The dolls' house is perfect in every detail.

As Daniel is reunited with the last remaining member of his family - his 'uncle' Severin, who bears an uncanny resemblance to a sinister wooden doll he has found hidden in the house, he begins to suspect that this vicious, haunted puppet of a figure has a chilling influence, bringing cruelty and spite in its wake.

Now Daniel's very life is at risk as his uncle is determined to get his hands on the figure . . .

The menace builds throughout in this deliciously creepy Gothic tale.

Reviews

Anne Fine is right on top form in The Devil Walks, a page-turning sinister tale where the tension mounts to the very end . . . Now read on! A splendid child's introduction to the gothic

—— Marilyn Brocklehurst , The Bookseller

A superb and subtle writer . . . a joyful marriage of style and content . . . The Devil Walks is immediately a classic in its own right

—— Mal Peet , Guardian

It is a pitch-perfect Gothic thriller

—— Daily Telegraph

Recommended, but not for a dark and stormy night

—— Financial Times

Crackling with suspense, The Devil Walks is a dense psychological thriller set in a richly imagined past. Moody and unsettling, it is filled with intrigue and uncertainty to keep the readers guessing until the last page

—— Jake Hope , The Bookseller

There's a real Turn of the Screw feel to this absorbing ghost tale, a genuine Gothic spinechiller and beautifully told

—— Fiona Noble , The Bookseller

Chilling, creepy and utterly compelling . . . Fine creates a wonderful sense of place and the devilish captain Severin will haunt your psyche

—— Vanessa Lewis , The Bookseller

I’m inspired by every word that she writes

—— Woman & Home

Trainspotting may be a masterpiece but Skagboys is the reason the artist painted it, and sometimes that’s the most compelling story

—— Stylist

A cracking read

—— Time Out

It was never going to be light reading, but Welsh’s vigour, wit and energy still make it compulsive

—— Vogue

His best work in many years… An essential read

—— Irish Examiner

Masterful - crude, violent and poetic by turns... Its banter, outrage and razor wit sing off the page. A film, one suspects, isn't far off

—— Arifa Akbar , Independent

It's brilliant and even more thrilling than its predecessor

—— Simon Humphreys , Mail on Sunday

A brilliantly funny, scary, sweeping novel with all the energy of Welsh's debut, but imbued with a wider sense of political and social engagement

—— Doug Johnstone , Independent on Sunday

I'm not sure that in 2012 there will be a single novel, never mind half a dozen, with more verve or nous or life in it than Skagboys. Ye kin pure tell they Booker gadgies'll no huv the baws but...

—— Anthony Cummins , Literary Review

Trainspotting may be a masterpiece but Skagboys is the reason the artist painted it, and sometimes that's the most compelling story

—— Joanna McGarry , Stylist

A cracking read.

—— Time Out

Skagboys is a compelling tale...a seriously entertaining piece of work

—— Peter Murphy , Irish Times

Skagboys, technically, is a prequel to the Leith author's brilliant 1993 debut...the result is a longer, deeper and more affecting work, one which explains and explores the circumstances under which Renton, Sick Boy, Tommy, Spud and Begbie - a roll call as familiar as Disney's Seven Dwarves for readers of a certain age - became the characters they did... It's an undeniably funny book, funny in that three-wit way of being at once visceral and true. Welsh's knack for dialogue - both ineternal and conversational - remains virtuosic and often exhilarating. It makes for characters you can't help but care about even the psychopaths and amoral chancers like Begbie and Sick Boy... Welsh's finest work to date

—— Ben Machell , The Times

One of the most significant writers in Britain. He writes with style, imagination, wit and force.

—— Times Literary Supplement

The voice of punk, grown up, grown wiser and grown eloquent.

—— The Times

It was never going to be light reading, but Welsh's vigour, wit and energy still make it compulsive

—— Charlotte Sinclair , Vogue

While you can place him in a literary tradition which flows from Alasdair Gray and James Kelman (and maybe Joyce before that), Welsh remains a lapsed punk, hung up on the Velvets and Iggy Pop

—— Alastair McKay , Evening Standard

Like Trainspotting, Skagboys thrusts along with the exuberance of its episodic stories. Welsh hasn't lost his flair for comic set pieces

—— Robert Collins , Sunday Times

Welsh somehow manages to be both the Zola of Therese Raquin, and Dostoevsky's Underground Man, ranging between quasi-scientific perspective and a more immersed, troubling one. That he does so for the most part in a furious low Scots vernacular - filthy, or fulthy, and hugely funny at times - may seem remarkable

—— Keith Miller , Daily Telegraph

If you too loved the colloquial tangle of Trainspotting, you'll find a similar rhythm in Skagboys

—— Andrew Collins , Word Magazine

Welsh revisits his old demons to give us the Trainspotting prequel...Expect more of the same raw wit and energy.

—— Toni & Guy

Engaging, heartfelt and brutal.

—— welovethisbook.com

Quite simply a masterpiece…at least as assured and vibrant in its characterization as Trainspotting, Skagboys is even more on the money politically… this novel more than any other , (including its brilliant predecessor) stands as our spiritual and moral history.

—— The Scotsman

There is enough of what Welsh does well — needle-sharp dialogue, vivid characters and a certainty of place — to make Skagboys his best work in many years…an essential read.

—— Timothy Mo , Irish Examiner

Welsh always spins his yarns with grisly élan.

—— Extra Time

I ended up charmed beyond measure, if that is the right word for a novel whose odd moments of poignance are regularly booted into touch by death, disillusionment and dereliction.

—— D J Taylor , Spectator

Every bit as impressive as Trainspotting

—— Daily Telegraph

Visceral, tragic and comic, with Welsh’s schlock-shock appeal

—— Arifa Akbar , i

If you enjoyed Trainspotting, you will adore this prequel... I think that Welsh has achieved the impossible and produced a prequel that betters the main text

—— Nudge

Filthy, furious and very funny, this is Welsh back on blistering top form

—— Mail on Sunday

The strength of Cline's first novel, other than its geeky referencing of 1980s pop culture, is the characterisation of the Candide-like Wade and his redemptive quest in both VR and the real world.

—— Guardian

If you grew up with an Atari or maybe had a Commodore 64 back in the day, you are going to really enjoy this one. Cline really captures the feeling of those good old days in Ready Player One.

—— WIRED.COM

Cline [crafts] a fresh and imaginative world from our old toy box ... Cline strikes the nerves of nerd culture as expertly as Andy played that skeleton organ in The Goonies.

—— Entertainment Weekly
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