Friend of the Devil by Stephen Lloyd – Review

Published: May 10, 2022

Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Series: Standalone

Genre: Horror, Mystery

Pages: 240 (Hardcover)

My Rating 2.5/5.0

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:

From acclaimed television writer Stephen Lloyd comes a devilishly good debut: a lightning-fast horror/noir mash-up for fans of Jim Butcher and Joe Hill.

It’s the 1980s and Sam Gregory, a substance-abusing war veteran turned insurance investigator, arrives at the galactically elite Danforth Putnam boarding school off the coast of New England to find a stolen manuscript of incalculable value. He soon senses that something far stranger than missing books is afoot–and when students begin vanishing from campus, he realizes how serious it is.

At the same time, a reporter is keeping an eye on Sam. Harriet, a physically fragile but spiritually indomitable writer for the school paper, is trying to figure out precisely what he’s up to.

As events at the school become increasingly terrifying, Sam and Harriet both venture into increasingly dark territory to crack the mystery. In the end, they uncover a truth more horrible than they could have imagined.

Put the novels of Raymond Chandler and Bram Stoker in a blender, splash in a couple drops of Stranger Things, and pour yourself a nice tall glass of Friend of the Devil.

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While stuck on a series of long flights I decided to do a little reading catch up. This seemed a good place to start, what with it being an interesting investigative story.

This book wastes no time at all and dumps you right into the middle of things – Sam is an insurance guy who comes to a fancy private school to investigate the claim on a lost book. The book is quite old and valuable and to be honest, it doesn’t take long to track down the thief or the kid who put the thief up to it. The other POV is that of Harriet, a bit of a nerd, she’s out for revenge after her and some friends get cruelly bullied during a D&D session. Sam and Harriet are both trying to track down a kid named Dale, who is behind the book theft and numerous other infractions (blackmail and drug dealing mostly).

There’s plenty of unusual happenings going on at the posh, isolated boarding school and the story seems to jump from one thing to the next without pause. The pacing is in fact, too rapid for my taste as I felt there wasn’t time for dread, anticipation, or any other feeling to build up. In fact, many of the events happened so abruptly all I could think was “wtf??”. 

Overall, the book felt too sparse for me to truly enjoy it but it was somewhat redeemed by being a very quick read (under 2 hours).