The White Devil: A Ghost Story

The White Devil by Justin Evans opens with a splash.   It immediately pulls the reader into a dark and Gothic world that is riddled with ghosts and mystery.   The White Devil's protagonist is a young man,  Andrew Taylor, who has been expelled from many American boarding schools.   His family comes from old money that has been lost and Andrew has squandered his family's hopes with fast living and bad behavior.   He is sent across the ocean to an ancient, British, boarding school to redeem himself and if he doesn't redeem himself his father has made it quite clear he will be disowned.  Andrew is a lost soul and a complex character and as soon as he sets foot in the old English boarding school, the ghosts of Harrow School rise up to great him.

Andrew immediately witnesses a murder and then he falls in with the only girl on the campus.  Trouble follows Andrew like a shadow and he quickly becomes entangled in a ghostly mystery.  He is tormented by visions of the ghost of Harrow School and he can't escape the mystery surrounding the ghost that haunts him.  Andrew is the spitting image of Byron and his dark story and Byron's mirror each other as the ghost story around Andrew slowly unfolds.

As a ghost story, The White Devil is beautifully written and very well done.  It isn't a horror story and it certainly won't keep you up at night, but the mysterious ghosts of Harrow School will keep you turning the pages, wondering what is next.  This is wonderful novel for any connoisseur  of good ghost stories and dark Gothic mysteries that keep you wondering what is lurking around the next corner.