A medieval devil speaks directly to the reader, his tone murderous one moment, seductive the next, in a memoir allegedly penned in the year 1438. The demon has embedded himself in the very words of this tale of terror, turning the book itself into a dangerous object, laced with menace only too ready to break free and exert its power.

Long-beleaguered supernatural private investigator Harry D'Amour and his entourage of mortal sidekicks are lured to the infernal realm to serve as "witness" to what the demon Pinhead calls "my gospels": a succession of gruesome atrocities. The Scarlet Gospels takes readers back many years to the early days of two of Barker's most iconic characters in a battle of good and evil as old as time: The long-beleaguered detective Harry D'Amour, investigator...