And, whilst searching this hidden room, he finds a mysterious puzzle box that starts to solve itself……. But, after a bit of searching, Harry finds a secret chamber filled with magical grimoires. When Harry finds the house, everything seems relatively normal. He has been sent to the city by his old friend Norma, a blind medium who has been contacted by the ghost of a recently-deceased lawyer who wants someone to get rid of his secret occult love nest before his family find out about it. Meanwhile, hard-boiled paranormal detective Harry D’Amour is drinking in a bar in New Orleans and reminiscing about his past. Something that has just found the crypt……. Something has been systematically killing the world’s magicians and stealing their knowledge. The five magicians who raised him are the only magicians who are still alive. When – much to his annoyance – Ragowski returns to the realm of the living, the news isn’t good.

Five magicians have gathered around the grave of their fallen friend, Joseph Ragowski, in order to raise him from the dead. The novel begins in a gloomy, candlelit crypt.

This is the 2015 Macmillan (UK) hardback edition of “The Scarlet Gospels” that I read.

Clive barker the scarlet gospels review