The Scarlet Gospels
First edition (US)
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| Author | Clive Barker |
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| Cover artist | Clive Barker |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Horror |
| Publisher | St. Martin's Press |
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Publication date
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May 19, 2015 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 368 |
The Scarlet Gospels is a novel by horror/fantasy writer Clive Barker, which acts as a sequel to his previous novella The Hellbound Heart and a sequel to his canon of Harry D'Amour stories. The book concerns D'Amour's trip into Hell to rescue his friend from Pinhead, a character from Barker's previous works, here reimagined as a demonic entity called The Hell Priest.
The novel had a long gestation period, with Barker talking as early as 1998 about wanting to write a story in which he killed the Pinhead character. Updates to the novel's progress appeared on Barker's website sporadically over the course of the next twelve years, mostly related to the book's progressively swelling length; at one point, Barker predicted that his completed manuscript would reach 1,000-2,000 pages. Updates culminated in a June 18, 2010 Twitter announcement that "the 243,000 words of 'The Scarlet Gospels' merely lacks a publisher". Due to the length of the completed work, the book underwent heavy editing between 2010 and 2013, with Barker announcing on Sept 9, 2013, that although no date had been set for release, "The Scarlet Gospels are finished." In 2014, Barker announced the book's publication on his official website with the message: “Clive is delighted to announce that St Martin's Press has acquired world English rights to publish The Scarlet Gospels, his upcoming novel featuring Pinhead and Harry D'Amour."
St Martin's Press released the book on May 19, 2015.
The world's last remaining magicians gather to resurrect Ragowski, a recently deceased member of their order who was killed by a demonic entity known as the Hell Priest. Ragowski informs them that the Priest is determined to obtain every source of magic known to man, and that their only hope of avoiding his fate is to give the Priest the location of all of their grimoires and talismans. The Hell Priest arrives, having been alerted by the spell that caused Ragowski's resurrection, and degrades and kills all of the magicians save for one, Felixson, whom he enslaves to use as a human servant.
In New Orleans, paranormal detective Harry D'Amour travels to the home of a recently deceased magician who hired him via medium Norma Paine in order to destroy evidence of his occult activities before his family can discover them. Harry learns that the assignment was a trap set by the Hell Priest to kill him, in order to eliminate Harry as a potential obstacle to completing some mission. Harry is rescued by Dale, an elderly Southern man who experiences moments of precognition. Dale sends Harry back to New York City to attend to Norma, who tells Harry that a monumental event is about to occur in the spirit world.
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