The Devil Hath a Pleasing Shape

Terry Roberts

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Hardback

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English

Turner Publishing Company
08 January 2025

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945); Historical mysteries; Fiction: special features

Walk the dark halls and threatening streets of 1920s Asheville in this thrilling third installment of The Stephen Robbins Chronicles, as fan-favorite Robbins confronts the dangerous contrast between appearance and reality at the exclusive Grove Park Inn.

It's the autumn of 1924, and Benjamin Loftis has a problem. A college girl is discovered-naked and dead-in one of the finest rooms of his beloved Grove Park Inn. To protect the reputation of this jewel in the crown of North Carolina and all the Southern mountains, Loftis calls in Stephen Robbins, a local man famous in some circles for finding missing people and solving unsolvable crimes.

Robbins, now scarred and battered by life's wars, would rather retreat from the world than dive headfirst into a new mystery. But he agrees to help and is quickly swept into the social hierarchy of Asheville's complex and harshly stratified society, running head-on into the financial and political elite who control this mountain town-those who want a murderer caught but not necessarily the murderer.

With so many socialites focused on reputation over truth, will Robbins be able to find the devil walking among them and bring them to justice? Find out in The Devil Hath a Pleasing Shape, a thrilling noir set against the backdrop of the jazz age in America.

Want more Stephen Robbins? Read more of his story in

A Short Time to Stay Here and My Mistress' Eyes are Raven Black.

By: Terry Roberts
Imprint: Turner Publishing Company
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: New edition
Dimensions: Height: 215mm, Width: 139mm, Spine: 12mm
ISBN: 9781684420346
ISBN 10: 1684420342
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 08 January 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Terry Roberts is the author of five celebrated novels:A Short Time to Stay Here(winner of the Willie Morris Prize for Southern Fiction and the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction);That Bright Land(winner of the Thomas Wolfe Literary Award, the James Still Award for Writing About the Appalachian South and the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction);The Holy Ghost Speakeasy and Revival(Finalist for the 2019 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction);My Mistress' Eyes are Raven BlackFinalist for the 2022 Best Paperback Original Novel by the International Thriller Writers Organization); and most recently,The Sky Club, released in July of 2022. Roberts is a lifelong teacher and educational reformer as well as an award-winning novelist. He is a native of the mountains of Western North Carolina-born and bred. His ancestors include six generations of mountain farmers, as well as the bootleggers and preachers who appear in his novels. He was raised close by his grandmother, Belva Anderson Roberts, who was born in 1888 and passed to him the magic of the past along with the grit and humor of mountain story telling. Roberts is the Director of the National Paideia Center and lives in Asheville, North Carolinawith his wife, Lynn.

Reviews for The Devil Hath a Pleasing Shape

“Terry Roberts has crafted another classic noir mystery rich with sensory details, brisk pacing, crackling dialogue, and escalating tension. I tore through the pages of this newest Stephen Robbins novel, completely immersed in the atmospheric details of Jazz Age-Asheville as our hero investigates a murder at the Grove Park Inn. Robbins faces his biggest challenge yet, especially when wealthy society leaders are more interested in wrapping up the case than finding real answers. The Devil Hath a Pleasing Shape swept me along so powerfully that I became just as desperate as Robbins to see justice prevail.” —Heather Bell Adams, author of Maranatha Road and The Good Luck Stone “Terry Roberts delivers with another novel about hard-boiled detective Stephen Robbins. You’ll be enthralled as Robbins uncovers a killer, and left thinking as the novel explores privilege, power, corruption, racism, and the cost of redemption. The historical setting may be illustrious, but everyone’s morals are in question.” —Leslie Logemann, Highland Books, Brevard, NC