Pour One for the Devil
Pour One for the Devil
“Very cool.”
—Stephen Graham Jones,
NYT best-selling author of My Heart is a Chainsaw and
The Only Good Indians
When Dr. Van Vierlans receives an invitation from Mrs. Elizabeth Van der Horst to give a lecture at her island mansion off the coast of South Carolina, he doesn't think twice. There’s a generous honorarium, and he relishes the chance to revisit the Sea Islands, where he once studied the Gullah language.
The lavish house he arrives at is strangely out of time. No other historians appear, nor does an audience, as he passes the time chatting in Gullah with the household servants. Just when his suspicions become difficult to ignore, Mrs. Van der Horst plies him with a sumptuous feast that distracts him from her true motives–which may prove more sinister than anything he’s prepared to imagine.
Praise for Pour One for the Devil
“Creepy, atmospheric, and darkly funny, Pour One for the Devil has all the trappings of a fine Southern Gothic tale infused with the incomparable wit and dark imaginings of Van Alst. I greatly enjoyed this tale.”
—Sonora Taylor, award-winning author of Little Paranoias: Stories and Seeing Things
“Very cool. Puts me in mind of Machado’s The Resident.”
—Stephen Graham Jones, NYT best-selling author of My Heart is a Chainsaw and The Only Good Indians
“Pour One for the Devil is the first Indigenous Southern Gothic work I’ve let spill into my soul. Slick and soothing down the hatch, Van Alst’s writing will at first burn your tongue, make you curse for being so good, and entice you to slam your glass down and demand another round.”
—Shane Hawk, co-editor of Never Whistle at Night
“Pour One for the Devil is dangerous and delicious, hitting all the right notes. Straightforward at first sip, the story deepens as you take it in, mixing the profane and sacred with a sledgehammer finish. Best keep your wits about you. What should be a simple visit by an academic to a Carolina island historical society becomes a gothic nightmare with a Chicago twist. Another first rate read from Van Alst, who pours himself into the prose, intoxicating and thick with chills.”
—Kimberly Davis Basso, author of Next Door
“Pour One for the Devil dives headlong into all the liquor, lies, and long-simmering moral horrors one could hope for from a Southern Gothic, and finds unique gravity in its lively layering of American atrocity. Van Alst Jr.’s investigator encounters a cinematic swirl of bourbon, blood-soaked soil, and bad magic as he sinks deeper into the eldritch rituals of a sweltering southern island where the Devil is only one of the players, and every last soul is up for grabs.”
—Jeremy Robert Johnson, award-winning author of The Loop and Skullcrack City
“From page one, Van Alst Jr.'s Pour One for the Devil hit all the right notes—a slowly mounting dread, secrets stacked upon secrets, and an ending that at first shocked me and then, after I sat with it a bit, felt inevitable. It's got all the beautiful, heartbreaking touchstones of a truly harrowing gothic tale.”
— Keith Rosson, author of Fever House
“Rich with legend and lore, Theodore C. Van Alst’s Pour One for the Devil is a Gothic horror tale in which our sinister home radiates with superstition.”
—Cynthia Pelayo, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Crime Scene
