This tightly plotted supernatural thriller takes place at Edinburgh's Fringe Festival, a month-long theater event that takes over the city as thousands of troupes compete for tourists"attention (and dollars). Peter Dexter, a florid showman, holds enigmatic press conferences trumpeting his new installation, which will feature an 1829 invention designed to steal men's souls. The device's original inventor, Dr. Alexander Brodie, succumbed to madness with the godlike power that his invention provided and financed most of Edinburgh's graveyard robbers in his attempt to perfect his creation. Making good use of Edinburgh's gothic setting, the plot rushes inexorably to its suspenseful conclusion, lampooning current cultural mores along the way. Wallace nimbly juggles multiple narratives: the grisly proceedings of Brodie's original experiments; an interview transcript of a petty drug dealer who was present at Dexter's ill-fated performance; the legal files of a law firm whose steadfast exterior belies a secret of its own; and the perspective of the hapless PR hack who gets pulled into Dexter's web. Stephen King fans will well enjoy this darkly humorous tale. Brendan Dowling
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