Diabolicum

An ingenious blend of mystery, narrative fiction and diabolical logic games, where gothic atmosphere and playful deception turn the story into a puzzle itself.

In St John’s Wood, north London, far from the bustle of the city centre, five gentlemen gather every Friday evening at the same corner table of the Crown Pub. There, they challenge one another with riddles and intellectual games of their own invention, carefully recording questions and solutions in two notebooks. When one of these notebooks falls into the hands of Benjamin Plate, a twelve-year-old boy with a passion for puzzles and the son of a successful printer, everything changes.

The notebook is soon transformed into Diabolicum, an anonymously published “mystery gazette” released without solutions. As its enigmas circulate, fascination spreads rapidly across the city, drawing London into a game of wit, obsession and deception.

Charles Macklin (1699-1797), playwright and actor, and Joe Grimaldi (1778-1837), beloved comic actor and king of clowns during the Regency era, are two (among many) ghosts who inhabit an ancient London location considered one of the most haunted in the world. Charles and Joe have kindly allowed Longanesi to use their names.