THE DEVIL'S WARD

G’s horror novel is a blend of medical thriller, supernatural mystery, and family drama.

In 2025, Tara Thavaramara, a doctor, returnsto Deacon Hospital—the same institution where her brother, Tharn, worked before vanishing in 2008. Accused of committing the “Spiderweaver Murders” that occurred at the hospital, Tharn remains a figure of unease, though former patients recall him kindly. Determined to uncover the truth, Tara hides her relation to him while pursuing her own investigation. In 2008, the younger Tara once heard a menacing voice confessing to harming Tharn and mocking her: “Unlike poor Tharn, I’ll still be here when you’re ready.” As the story alternates between past and present, Tara tries to balance her work with the tensions of home life, particularly with her mother, Mae. One night, a misdialed pager call connects her across time to Tharn, who is alive in 2008. Both struggle to understand the link—Tara wonders if it could be “a rip in time? Magic?”—but she recognizes his baritone voice instantly. As she investigates, new deaths echo the earlier killings, and Tara realizes the killer has returned. Meanwhile, back in 2008, Tharn is tormented by visions of spiders and monsters, which deepen suspicion against him. One of the novel’s strongest aspects is its incorporation of Thai culture, from specific family vocabulary to the Preta monsters “starv[ing] for human souls” with their “clawed fingers grazing the floor.” Such details lend cultural depth to a plot that otherwise relies on very familiar serial-killer tropes and a time-travel device that starts to feel both convoluted and improperly deployed. As the narrative accrues new layers of ghosts, murderers, family tensions, and movements between decades, there are very few moments for readers to catch their breath. However, the character Beam—Tara and Tharn’s younger brother—provides much-needed lightness, and the final suspenseful act helps the book land strongly.

An inventive horror thriller energized by Thai folklore but hampered by familiar tropes.