In 1935 Prague a series of grotesque murders are being committed, each having more than a passing resemblance to those committed in London 50 years earlier by 'Jack the Ripper'. Amidst the mayhem a Psychiatrist, Vicktor, takes up a post at an asylum for the criminally insane, built inside a brooding castle not too far outside of Prague. The place has been feared by locals for generations, and there are stories of a terrible evil that may be more than simple folklore and superstition. The asylum itself is home to just six inmates, but these are the most evil of individuals, their heinous crimes having earned them the name 'the 'Devil's Six'.

This is an extremely immersive, darkly atmospheric story, full of Gothic horror and European folklore. A fantastic read.

The Devil Aspect is the first book that I have read by Craig Russell and whilst it started off promising with the incident in the station I then found that it lacked impetus and I struggled to maintain interest throughout the rest of the book

Not one for me I'm afraid

If you want a different kind of book, this is it
WOW
The writing is very clever and a definite page turner.
The characters are all intriguing
I don't actually ever remember reading anything remotely like this at all
Very good read, strong story and an unexpected ending.

Thank you Craig Russell, netgalley and little Brown book group.

Prague, 1935: Viktor Kosarek, a psychiatrist trained by Carl Jung, arrives at the infamous Hrad Orlv Asylum for the Criminally Insane. The facility is located in a medieval mountaintop castle just outside of Prague. The asylum houses six most treacherous killers - known to the staff as The Woodcutter, The Clown, The Glass Collector, The Vegetarian, The Sciomancer and The Demon. Viktor hopes to use a new medical technique to prove that these patients share a common archetype of evil, a phenomenon known as the Decil Aspect.

There are five men and one woman taking part in the experiment. The setting for this book is eerie with its Gothic castle being surrounded by a dense forest. There is also supposed to be a hidden network of tunnels running from the castle. The author explores the history, myth, religion and psychology to try and understand what makes people tick. The 1935 rise of Nazism and virulent nationalism provide a menacing backdrop to the story. The pace is slow, but that is the best pace for this novel. I did find the last few chapters to be a bit disappointing though.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Little Brown Book Group, UK and the author Craig Russell for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and to Little Brown Book Group UK, for providing me an ARC copy of this book that I freely and with some trepidation chose to review.
There is much to talk about in this book (yes, I enjoyed it, if you want the short of it. Yes, it is eerie, gothic, can be scary at times, it is full of evil deeds, some not apt for the fainthearted, and full of atmosphere), and it would also be easy to fall into revealing spoilers, so I will try to talk in general terms and will keep some of the thoughts that went through my head as I read it to myself.
Rather than trying to summarise the plot, as I have already included two versions of the blurb, I thought I’d use the author’s own words (and I recommend you to read the author’s note at the end. I suspect it will keep me thinking about this book for as long as the book itself will):
The main engines that drive the story are Jungian psychology, Central European myths and legends, the history of Czechoslovakia immediately before the Second World War and the ethnic tensions that existed within the country at that time.
This is 1939, and the author is great at bringing to life the atmosphere in Czechoslovakia at the time, the politics and the strained relationships between the different parts of the population, the ethnic minorities, the Germans, Sudeten, the Jewish inhabitants, the criminal underworld, and the increasing atmosphere of threat and impending doom and evil. He also uses the locations, both in the city, the forests, and the castle, to great effect, to the point where they almost become protagonists in their own right. I can’t say I’m familiar with any of the locations of the story despite a visit to Prague many years back, although there are some, like the Bone Church (the Sedlec Ossuary) that have intrigued me for many years, and I am sure I’m not the only one who shares in the fascination.

Having worked as a forensic psychiatrist, I could not resist the idea of reading a book set in what would have been a forensic unit of the time. And what a setting! A castle that according to legend was built to keep closed the entry to hell and that now houses the six most dangerous insane criminals of all central Europe. Both, the director of the hospital and the new doctor we meet on his way to take up his new appointment, Viktor, (no, you won’t make me tell you what happened to the previous psychiatrist in the post, don’t insist) have interesting theories to explain the madness of their patients (one akin to a contagion, like that caused by a virus, the other a similar concept to that explored and exploited often in movies and films, but in this case referring to a specific aspect of one’s personality, the so-called “Devil Aspect” of the title, rather than to multiple personalities), and the book goes into a fairly detailed explanation and exploration of those theories, including allowing us to witness the doctor’s sessions using narcotics (a very dangerous technique, I must say). I found these part of the book as fascinating, if not more, as the other part that seemed to be the more active and thrilling part of it, but I am aware that there is a lot of telling (because each one of the six devils gets a chance to tell their story), and although they help give a global picture of the nature of the evil the book refers to, not all of them seem to be directly related to the plot of the book, so guess that some readers will not feel the same as I do about those sessions.
The second part of the action, which takes place in parallel, consists of the investigation of a series of crimes in Prague, committed by a murderer, Leather Apron, who seems intent on imitating Jack the Ripper, and we follow the efforts of a police investigator Lukas Smolàk, trying to catch him. This part of the book is more akin to a police procedural of the time and is well done. It feels like a noir detective novel, only set within a gothic nightmarish background, not so dissimilar to the Victorian Ripper original. The clues are gruesome and so are the murders, and every time they seem closer to solving the crimes, something new comes to light and confuses matters. While to begin with Lukas appears to be the example of a seasoned detective who has seen everything and is wary of events in society at large, later the murders start to affect him more personally, and he becomes increasingly unravelled by the events, which humanises him and makes him easier to connect with.
The story is told in the third person but from each one of those characters’ points of view, with some brief intrusions from other characters’ insights, like one of the victims, or Judita, who is a bit more than a friend of Viktor and also works at the hospital. This works well to give us a better understanding and makes empathise, and also suffer with them, in some cases. Personally, I really liked Judita, who has to face prejudice and has overcome her own mental health difficulties, and also Lukas, who shares with Viktor the determination to find the truth, and the analytical mind. I was intrigued by Viktor, not only because he is a psychiatrist, but because we learn from early on that he has survived a pretty difficult childhood and has had to cope with trauma. But his single-mindedness and his pursuit of his theory, sometimes despite the evident risks, not only to himself but to others, give him a tinge of the mad scientist, and I found him more interesting as a subject of observation than as somebody I felt connected to.
The Central and Eastern European mythology and the Jungian psychology theme add a further layer of complexity and work well in helping bring more uncertainty, menace, and confusion to the proceedings. There are dark corners and many secrets hidden by most of the protagonists; there are clues and warnings aplenty, red herrings, twists and turns, and although readers of the horror and the psychological thriller genres might have their suspicions and a variety of theories as to what is going on, a bit like the layers of the personality Viktor tries to reach, the narration also pulls us deeper and deeper into the darkness, the plot, and the castle, which is a physical stand-in for the deepest recesses of the human mind and also of human history.
I don’t want to bore you with my psychiatric insights, but I can say that although I’m not an expert in the history of psychiatry in Central Europe, the procedures followed in the castle, the way the place functions and the patient histories did not require a great suspension of disbelief. (Yes, I have known patients who have experienced a fugue-like state. No, I’ve never met anybody with multiple personalities or dissociative identity disorder, and I don’t think it is a common diagnosis in the UK, but…)
I enjoyed the style of writing, full of vivid imagery and very atmospheric, which makes us see what is happening in our minds (sometimes even when we’d rather not), and felt the rhythm worked well, combining the investigation, that felt more pressing and hurried, with what was happening at the castle, that at least, to begin with, was more contemplative and serene. The closer we come to the end, the more the rhythm accelerates and both strands of the story come together. As I said, there is a twist, or even more than one, in the end, and I think this book has everything to recommend it to readers of the genre who also enjoy a gothic setting and are eager to explore new mythologies regarding good an evil. This is not a book I’d recommend to those who don’t enjoy horror and reading about violent crimes. And it is not a book for those who prefer books fast and full of action, but it pays to stick with it, and if you’re interested in psychiatry and are looking for a different twist on the serial killer subject, I thoroughly recommended.
I am not surprised film production companies are looking at buying this book. This could become a fascinating movie.

'The Devil Aspect' is a good book let down by a bad editor. The plot - featuring a charming (and renegade) Czech psychiatrist, a Jack the Ripper-esque murderer and six mad, bad and dangerous to know psychopaths known as 'The Devil's Six' - is a good one, but it's let down by the fact that the pacing is very slow. I'm not entirely sure that we need the back stories of 'all of the various murderers we encounter throughout the story, even if they are quite interesting. It's hard to see what this contributes to the story and can sometimes tear the reader away from the meat of the plot, because you want to find out more about these six supremely intriguing characters who are arguably all worthy of their own books. This leads the story to drag quite badly in the middle, even if it does pick up pace towards the end. The final twist is particularly good and certainly one which I didn't see coming!

The setting of pre WW2 Sudentenland can also feel a bit clunky and heavy handed at times (we get it, war is on the horizon) and at times, the main female character felt like less of a person in her own right and more of a convenient plot device. I would loved to have spent more time getting to know her and her back story as she initially is presented to us as someone who is so much more than a Jewish girl with premonitions of the holocaust.

I'd certainly be interested in reading more from Craig Russell in the future as he's a great writer with a real eye for (male) characters. I'd happily read any book he wrote featuring one of the Devil's Six. He just needs to figure out how not to get bogged down in the small stuff.

This is a deliciously spooky crime thriller set in historical Prague with two story lines: one follows a doctor at a mental hospital as he explores the psychology of the patients there - all of them highly dangerous, brutal killers - to see if they share a common cause for their evil. The other is a more straight forward crime plot as a detective investigates the grizzly murders happening in the city. The novel is engaging right from the start and the two plot lines are equally interesting, making you wonder how they will be connected, and longing to return to one when you read the other. It will keep you guessing about whether this will be crime novel or have some supernatural elements, as well. There are also some spooky local myths and folk tales thrown in for free - definitely do not read this book alone at night, because it is scary.

I loved the way Craig Russell dealt with exposition, even managing to give extensive backstory on each of the patients without ever making it seem boring. Also, he did a great job involving a political dimension to the story, which added more suspects rather than overwhelm the plot. In general, there were so many interesting theories to craft and suspects to think about - very much involving the readership in the investigation. The many sneaky tiny connections between the two story lines helped with that: they were easy to miss, but all the more delicious to figure out. In the end, I was surprised by the plot twist, which was so juicy and quite brilliant. I did not see it coming, but it was also not completely unpredictable - like a good twist should be. All I can say to wrap this up is: I would totally give six stars if I could!

A dark thriller, packed with suspense and nerve shredding moments. Although unsettling at times, I found it really good and unputdownable.

Psychological thriller. Not my usual read, but the description of the book tweaked my interest. It was a page turner by the end of the book. Although I did worry if I would be able to sleep at night after reading it. Clever plot and ending. Unusual setting in Czechoslovakia with words and places that I had no knowledge of, which in one sense made the book more fanciful to me, also with the myths in the country playing a part in the story.
A rather dark subject. The epilogue threw in another turn, leaving the reader to ponder!
Would definitely recommend this book, though beware !

I didn't finish this book. I read about a fifth of it but I really don't like books about pure evil and that was the main theme of the book. I just didn't want to get into the story. It was well written and very evocative of eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century.

7/10

An enjoyable atmospheric novel set in the pre-WW2 era where a Nazi force is lurking and looking to invade every land known to man but the main focus is on The Devil’s 6 being incarcerated in a mental prison that happens to be a castle shrouded in local folklore. Like I say, atmospheric.

The story is entertaining and an interesting read where the mix of a Doctor interviewing 6 mental patients and the hunt for a Jack the Ripper style serial killer from the polices point of view in Prague. There are two POV’s which interweave and provide enough variation to get things progressing and setting some nice descriptions to get the era and fear of a city being stalked by a serial killer.

My main issue with this was about halfway through and I realised that there wasn’t any great movement in the story and some of the characters being interviewed didn’t offer much in the way of progression. Things definitely picked up in the end with an ending I didn’t see coming even though it wasn’t all that much a leap of intellect to see it coming but the lag in the middle was enough for me to not rate it higher overall.

Well worth a read and I’m glad I was asked to give it a try by the publisher. It didn’t work as well for me as it did for some of my friends but I can totally get why they would love this one.

Straight away I was drawn into this atmospheric Gothic novel about madness and mayhem, the story is well written and has brilliantly described characters which draws you in. Set in Prague at the brink of the second world war and the threat of Hitler's invasion of Europe, There is a killer about, nicknamed Leather Apron, he has been killing women in the style of Jack the ripper but like Jack there are no clues to help the police track him down. Kapitan Smolek visits an asylum where the Devils six are being held ( six men and women that have done crimes so atrocious they are kept in isolation in the middle of no where so they can never inflict carnage on anyone ever again. Here Dr Viktor Kosarek is experimenting with the Devils six minds, trying to find the Devil Aspect, the part of the mind where the madness lies, with the hope of curing the madness with in.

What a clever and intriguing book, twisting together strands of psychiatry, superstition and real events in the horror of a country hurtling towards war. Couple this with a serial killer plot and like me you will be sleeping with the lights on!

Brilliant gothic horror story. Set in Czechoslovakia in the mid 1930s this has all the classic ingredients from an ancient dark castle,the old village in a dark forest at the base of the castle which is used as an asylum for the six most deranged killers of the time. A series of violent murders in Prague and the search for the killer are interspersed with dark events at the castle where a psychiatrist is attempting new treatments for the inmates while a detective in Prague continues his part in the tale. Everything eventually comes together in a rousing brutal finale with an intriguing epilogue to leave one exhausted but satisfied! Splendid stuff.

I have shivers down my spine. This is a compelling read. The plot has been really cleverly thought out. I was gripped the whole way through. The way mental patients were treated in the 1930s in Czechoslovakia was really interesting. The Devils 6 were characters that I wanted to find out more about. The superstitions and the setting all added to the atmosphere of this story. I would definitely recommend this book and will be looking out for more books by this author.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

This is an atmospheric and well written, Gothic novel, with an excellent setting and sense of brooding intensity and fear. It features psychiatrist, Victor Kosarek, who studied under Carl Jung. When we meet him, he is heading for the Hrad Orlu Asylum, having previously lived in Prague. The asylum is housed in a castle, surrounded by forest, and looms over the small village of Mlada Bolsav.

The asylum houses only six patients – Pavel Zeleny, known as The Woodcutter, Hedvika Valentova, The Vegetarian, Leos Mladek, The Clown, Michal Machachek, The Glass Collector, Dominik Bartos, The Scionmancer and Vojtek Skala, The Demon. These six patients are, collectively, known as the Devil’s Six. Victor Kosarek is eager to carry out his research on these, six, notorious inmates. He believes that all people share a sense of evil – the Devil’s Aspect of the title. During his sessions with the patients he attempts to locate the source of this evil, and the sessions are outlined in depth, as Kosarek delves into each of their pasts.

In another storyline, Kapitan Lukas Smolak is investigating a killer, who seems to be copying the crimes of Jack the Ripper. In a link with the asylum, one of his colleagues is the brother of the Glass Collector and, when a glass bead is found at one of the crime scenes, the two men head to the asylum to try to find answers. When Victor Kosarek speaks to them, though, he is concerned about his friend, Filip, in Prague, who has been behaving oddly and who he suspects may be involved in the murders.

Together, these two storylines seem quite enough for one novel. However, this book is also wrapped up in a historical, and political, era, which adds another layer to the novel. It is 1935, the political landscape is changing, and Victor Kosarek becomes involved with Judita Blochova, the chief administrator at the asylum, who is Jewish. Judita had a nervous breakdown while studying medicine and is now all too aware that, some of her colleagues, are keen to support the new political, fascist movements, that are growing in confidence. From brawls on the streets of Prague, to villagers looking at those at the asylum with suspicion and fear, with a murderer stalking women and the brooding presence of the castle, local folklore, myths and rumours of evil, this is an excellent and atmospheric novel.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

Requested on the strength of a recommendation from another author whose opinion I value, and wasn't disappointed. Great plot that draws you in from the start, and a good example of where location definitely adds a layer to the overall story. Didn't quite hit the five star for me, but a solid enough four to make me dip into Craig Russell's backlist as a new fan!

Wow. Just wow. I can't really get my head around what I just read!

The story is set in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s. Nazism is on the rise, showing itself in small ways to the staff and residents of the asylum at the centre of the plot. This asylum is like no other, housing 'The Devil's Six', killers of such depravity that they are isolated in a remote castle location. The castle itself also hides secrets, with locals thinking it stops up the mouth of Hell itself. Into this grim and dark place comes a new psychiatrist, Victor, keen to prove that people have split personalities, a 'devil aspect' in each of us that has capacity for great harm. He arrives fresh from Prague, a city terrorised by a serial killer called 'Leather Apron', and starts to uncover some unexpected things about the castle residents.

It's hard to write a summary of the book that really does it justice. It cleverly weaves the mythology and folk tales of Central and Eastern Europe with trends and discoveries in psychiatry, while also maintaining a constant sense of darkness through the historical setting. As Nazism makes itself felt in Czechoslovakia, not least to the Jewish character in the novel, Russell also winds in the grimness of Victorian London's Jack the Ripper crimes being mirrored on the cold and gloomy streets of Prague. It is meticulously researched and fascinating. It's also all described vividly - sometimes a little too much so, given the brutality of the crimes involved and the disturbing madness at the heart of the novel.

I just can't praise this enough. It genuinely kept me turning pages right to the end and left me thinking about it long after the end. Yes, it's extremely dark and gruesome. Yes, it's about some very grim subjects. Yes, it's quite disturbing. But it's also wonderfully clever and inventive and compulsive. Please read it now.

Very easy to read and an intriguing story, with a serial killer, detective, psychiatrist and a gloomy castle. But once again the victims are female and the perpetrator is male. The main characters are all male, apart from the pretty assistant who should have been a psychiatrist. All rather predictable and I felt this really let the story down. Also, I guessed who the killer was about halfway through the book which didn't help.

The Devil Aspect by Craig Russel was a gripping read, rich with historical research, well-developed characters, and a believable setting. It’s a mix of crime thriller and gothic horror, and treads the line masterfully, leaving the more ‘supernatural’ elements of the story ambiguous. This should have been a five-star read. Craig Russel is a spectacular writer. His pacing is perfect, and his description and worldbuilding absolutely sublime. What brought the book down for me though was that the plot twist was made evident in the very first chapter. When the book reached its climax, I knew exactly where it was going, and this flattened the reading experience somewhat for me.

The Devil Aspect is intelligently written and delves into some of the deeper concepts of human psychology and the nature of God and the Devil. It tackles Jungian concepts, intertwining it with Slavic folklore, and the political history of Czechoslovakia. It was a big task, but Russel rises to it masterfully. He creates deep characters, all with inner turmoil and unique motivations. He realistically writes about character reactions to the political crisis with the rise of Nazism, showing how different people would have viewed the politics of the day with varying degrees of acceptance, fear, and dismissal.

One of Russel’s more masterful strokes is that he subtly compares the thoughts and motivations of his protagonists with the actions of ‘The Devil’s Six’- the six criminals housed in the Hrad Orlu Asylum where young psychiatrist, Victor Kosarek is allowed to test his new methods in order to find the darkness within the prisoners that he terms ‘The Devil Aspect’. While a Jack the Ripper style murderer terrorises Prague with no obvious motivation, the reader hears the stories of The Devil’s Six, whose crimes are given a more human side, really making us question the nature of Evil.

The pacing of The Devil Aspect comes on you like a creeping dread. As the novel went on, I found myself feeling more and more uncomfortable, worrying for the characters and their futures. I felt pity for The Devil’s Six, and frustration at the rampant nationalism in the background for which we all know the inevitable consequence. There was a real sense of mystery underlying the narrative, and I was utterly engrossed.

Perhaps that’s why I found the last few chapters a little disappointing. There had been such a sense of mystery the whole way through, but as the The Devil Aspect reached its climax, I realised I knew exactly how things would unfold, and how the inevitable plot twist would play out. The subtle dread that permeated the novel gave way to an action sequence that was a little on the nose and didn’t feel entirely believable within the carefully constructed pacing of the novel.

While the ending was a little disappointing though, the rest of The Devil Aspect more than made up for it. It’s definitely a book that I would recommend, and I’m looking forward to reading more of Craig Russel’s work!