The Devil's Plaything

By Matthew Tait

Idle hands are the Devil's plaything ...

After finishing high school, Liam Goodald and his friends quickly discover the meaning of boredom: freewill as a state of mind and not an abstract philosophy. With blistering heat settling into their apartment like a sickness, it's the sanatorium across the road that captures their attention – the forbidding hospital where mental patients are routinely neglected. Sometimes, they are even given freewill to roam ...

And when the Devil's plaything arrives, anything can happen.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dark Crib Publications
• Release date: May 3, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224261949

Matthew Tait

A vociferous horror columnist since 2005, Matthew Tait published his first collection of dark fiction in 2011. Since then, he has won the the prestigious Shadows Award for the novel Deception Pass. Described as writing 'the sort of horror Clive Barker must read on his days off' Matthew's fiction often treads the line between the familiar and the fantastic.  

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The Devil’s Plaything

Matthew Tait

The Devil’s Plaything

Copyright © 2020 Matthew Tait

Third Edition

This book is protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or photographs contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of the author or artist.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Cover Art: Greg Chapman

Editor/Layout: Shannon Gambino

First Printing: July 2011

Liam Goodald sat back in his comfortable leather recliner, watching the mental hospital across the road.

Night and day, he watched it. Sometimes alone; sometimes with others. Mostly, he was the sole occupant of his small apartment.

Today, the first day of July, Mitchell Wentworth was going to come over and watch with him. Like always, there was a chance he would bring his guns.

Liam certainly hoped so.