A History of Fear by Luke Dumas

The Devil is in Scotland, and he want you to know all about him. That’s the basic premise of this debut novel which, to its credit, is anything but basic.
Oh no, this is a twisted descent into madness rendered so vividly, so terrifyingly, that you’ll have difficulty putting it down.
Is it a perfect book? No, not by any means. But it’s a really, really good one.
So, onto details…
A young man from a heavily religious and severely traumatizing upbringing comes to Scotland to attend University. The Devil finds him and commissions him to write a book about him.
(How strongly does it echo Angel’s Game? Very strongly. But present-day Scotland is a far cry from post WWII Barcelona, so there’s that.)
Anyway, the young man is terrified of the project for it has every potential to rekindle his once crippling phobia, but is desperate for money and so he reluctantly takes it on and finds himself spiraling further and further out of control.
But that’s actually the before story. The book stars with the aftermath, so we know just how far the spiraling went. So far that he became a notorious “Devil made him do it” murderer nicknamed Devil’s Advocate, went to prison for it and died there.
The book is an account assembled by a journalist with interest in the case. It comprises the young man’s own narrative allegedly found afterwards and interviews and testimonies of people relevant to the case.
The separate elements add up into a cohesive and riveting sum total. A novel as intense and as bleak and as unsettling as any dark psychological fiction/literary horror fans might wish for.
The atmosphere is perfect. The madness is technicolor. The way the author writes about panic attacks and anxiety is right on the money.
The only detractor here for me was the way the homosexual angle was handled. And hey, before you start the accusations of homophobia, hear me out. Nothing against it, but here in this novel it was so freaking heavy-handed. The rest of the novel is terrifically subtle in that is he or isn’t he going mad and what is lurking in those shadows way. But the homosexual aspect is layered in so thickly as too almost be clumsy with it. And yes, unlike the rest of the plot, you can see it coming from across the Atlantic. It ends up almost preachy with it. Disappointingly so for such an otherwise strong novel.
The author obviously did that old “write what you know” thing here. Being a homosexual American man who attended a University in Scotland, he created a protagonist he could understand and recognize. But not subtly. And agenda heavy.
But aside from that, the novel worked really well. So well written, so creepy, so engaging. Definitely something fans ought to check out. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.