The Devil Aspect by Craig Russell

 This novel brings a fictional character of Dr. Viktor Kosarek, who introduces his sedative-aided hypnosis therapy to his patients to find the Devil Aspect in human psychology. While he works on his cases, the folk myths, superstition and legends of Easter Europe come out.

1935, Prague, Czechoslovakia

Dr. Viktor Kosarek, 29 years old, just recently was an intern at Bohnice Asylum. Now, he has taken a new position at Hrad Orlu Asylum for the Criminally Insane. A place known for confining murderers known as the Devil’s Six. As he travels to his new post outside Prague, on the train he meets an archeologist who reveals to him the story of the Neolithic hill fort on which the castle was built and of the network of caves. Now, the castle is an asylum holding the most extreme cases in Europe. When he arrives at the city of Mlada Boleslav, the nearest major settlement to the castle, the culture aspect of two languages is being revealed: Czech and German.

At the castle, he meets Judita Blochova, his mentor’s daughter. Due to her Jewish heritage and due to the Nuremberg Race Laws, she was forced to stop her studies in medicine as the new laws put anti-Semitic restrictions on education.

The bright doctor introduces his new therapy to his new six patients. And while the cases are revealed, the story of the castle itself gets unraveled including a story of a lord of the castle named Jan of the Black Heart.

Meanwhile, Kaptain Lukas Smolak is investigating murders happening in the city of Prague. In his custody, there is someone Smolak interrogated many times before and had been guilty. Tobar Bihari is a Gypsy and that would have been enough for some police officers to find Tobar guilty. “But Smolak knew that prejudice was the quickest path to a false conviction.” When the gypsy reveals his superstition that is something new to the detective. 

On a personal note, I do not read criminal stories, but the aspect of new hypnosis got me interested in this story. And what engrossed me into this story was the aspect of culture and folklore of Eastern Europe. The story is skillfully written and richly imagined. Again on a personal note, as not a reader of criminal stories, I wished the book had a bit more feeling of place and its village people below the castle and a bit less of descriptive cases (which were still expertly written).

Release Date: March 5, 2019

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