The Devil's Playground

Amazing. Id give someone elses right arm to write so beautifully Sarah Pinborough

Superb! The Devils Playground is imagination on steroids... breathtaking! Jeffery Deaver

A terrifying tale of the true power in Hollywood... (Russells) precise, gorgeous prose shinesNew York Times

A masterpiece. Captivatingly authentic, steeped in Hollywood lore Chris Brookmyre

Addictive. . . the most sheerly entertaining novel Ive raced through in at least a year. . . fresh, forceful, elegant but wild A.J. Finn

The Devils Playground is definitely on the shortlist for best mystery of the year Bookpage.com

When it comes to Gothic crime, Craig Russell is peerless. Absolutely stunning M W Craven

FROM CWA DAGGER AND DOUBLE McILVANNEY AWARD WINNER CRAIG RUSSELL COMES ANOTHER DARK, GRIPPING MASTERPIECE . . .

A dark, riveting thriller set in 1920s Hollywood about "the greatest horror movie ever made", the curse said to surround it, and a deadly search, decades later, for the single copy rumoured still to exist.

1927: Hollywood studio fixer Mary Rourke is called to the palatial home of "the most desirable woman in the world", silent movie actress Norma Carlton, star of The Devils Playground. When Rourke finds Carlton dead, she wonders if the dark rumours shes heard are true: that The Devils Playground really is a cursed production. But nothing in Hollywood is ever what it seems, and cynical fixer Rourke, more used to covering up the truth for studio bosses, finds herself seeking it out.

1967: Paul Conway, film historian and fervid silent movie aficionado, is on the trail of a tantalizing rumour: that a single copy of The Devils Playground-a Holy Grail for film buffs that was supposedly cursed and lost to time-may exist. His search takes him deep into the Mojave Desert, to an isolated hotel that hasnt changed in forty years but harbours only one occupant-and a shocking secret.

Separated by decades, both Rourke and Conway begin to suspect that the real Devils Playground is in fact Hollywood itself.

Praise for The Devils Playground

Horrifying, mesmerising, beautifully imagined. The Devils Playground is Craig Russell at his unrivalled best Chris Whittaker

The Devils Playground has a depth of period detail and atmosphere that lifts it above the ordinary. Its elegant, absorbing and thrilling Michael Malone

Totally engagingKathy Reichs, New York Times bestselling author of the Temperance Brennan series

Brilliantly written, with repeated surprisesThe Critic

Seamlessly blends noir, gothic and mystery in a way thats unique to crime fiction. Populated with a truly memorable cast, Playground is a guaranteed one-sitting read...and how can you resist a novel about the scariest movie of all time? Bravo!Jeffery Deaver, author of The Bone Collector