In 1967, Paul Conway, a journalist and self-professed film aficionado, searches for the single copy of The Devils Playground, a terrifying horror picture from 1927 rumored to have unleashed a curse on everyone involved in the production.
A riveting 1920s Hollywood thriller about the making of the most terrifying silent film ever made, and a deadly search for the single copy rumored still to exist, from the internationally acclaimed author of The Devil Aspect.
"A masterful thriller." Lincoln Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"A guaranteed one-sitting read." Jeffery Deaver, author of The Bone Collector and Hunting Time
"The most sheerly entertaining novel Ive raced through in at least a year." A.J. Finn, author of The Woman in the Window
1927: Mary Rourkea Hollywood studio fixeris called urgently to the palatial home of Norma Carlton, one of the most recognizable stars in American silent film. Norma has been working on the secret film everyone is openly talking about... a terrifying horror picture called The Devils Playground that is rumored to have unleashed a curse on everyone involved in the production. Mary finds Normas cold, dead body, and she wonders for just a moment if these dark rumors could be true.
1967: Paul Conway, a journalist and self-professed film aficionado, is on the trail of a tantalizing rumor. He has heard that a single copy of The Devils Playgrounda Holy Grail for film buffsmay exist. He knows his Hollywood history and he knows the film endured myriad tragedies and ended up lost to time.
The Devil's Playground is Craig Russells tour de force, a richly researched and constructed thriller that weaves through the Golden Age of Hollywood and reveals a blossoming industry built on secrets, invented identities, and a desperate pursuit of image. As Mary Rourke charges headlong through the egos, distractions, and traps that threaten to take her down with the doomed production, she discovers a truth far more sinister than sheor wecould have imagined.
