The Scarlet Gospels
A Terrifying Duel Between Good and Evil - The Perfect Horror Novel
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4.3 • 41 Ratings
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
The gates to Hell are open, and an epic battle between good and evil beckons in Clive Barker's The Scarlet Gospels.
Earth's last remaining magicians live in fear as Pinhead, a Cenobite Hell Priest, hunts them down to gorge on their knowledge and enhance his own magical powers in a quest to take over Hell. Private Investigator Harry D'Amour finds himself inadvertently opening a portal between Hell and Earth while fulfilling the final wishes of the dead, communicated through his blind medium associate, Norma Paine.
As Pinhead emerges through the portal, a vicious battle ensues. After failing to enlist Harry to pen his Scarlet Gospels – epistles chronicling the Hell Priest's grand coup – Pinhead captures Norma instead. To save her, Harry must embark on a perilous journey through the nightmarish landscape of Hell itself. The Scarlet Gospels takes readers back to the early days of two of Barker's most iconic characters in a supernatural thriller that pits good against evil in a terrifying and suspenseful battle as old as time.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Harry D'Amour, the psychically sensitive detective from Barker's Books of Blood, faces off with Pinhead, the sadistic Cenobite star of the Hellraiser series, in this gory battle royal that takes the reader literally to hell and back. Following a blood-spattered prologue that sets the tone for the rest of the novel, Pinhead here portrayed as a demon residing in hell lures D'Amour and his entourage of mortal sidekicks to the infernal realm to serve as "witness" to what the demon calls "my gospels": a succession of gruesome atrocities whose purpose is revealed in the tale's outrageous climax. Barker's depiction of hell is Dantesque in scope and scale, and his descriptions of its architecture and denizens form an awesomely creative display of imagination. The visceral horrors that clot nearly every page of this novel are not for the squeamish, but the reader who stomachs them to the end will be impressed by the audacity of the author's ambitions.
Customer Reviews
Wickedly descriptive.
Couldn’t put it down.
Could do better
Not his best work. The clever, lyrical use of language in his earlier works has gone; and the need to shock and disgust has replaced actual horror. I would hate to use the word clichéd, but some of the characters were unconvincing - they seemed to be there solely to move the plot on to the big scenes.
The story is okay, but only okay. You do feel like finding out what happens next and it's interesting to find out what happens to these characters from other books.