A couple of weeks ago in my Top 5 Mystery Books post I mentioned that I was working through reading through “The Devil Walks” book and mentioned that I would write in depth review when I finished.. Well I’m done reading through the entire book so here’s my in depth The Devil Walks book review!

First of all I have to say how much I enjoyed the book as a whole, there was never a dull moment and the whole story lead up to an insanely dramatic ending which I never expected! But you’ll have to read my story outline if you want to know more about the story!

The Devil Walks Story Outline (Spoilers ahead!)

The story started by giving the reader a quick catch up on what’s happening in the world of The Devil Walks with a boy named Daniel which had been locked away from the world by his own mother! His mum would use lies to keep him away from the outside world telling people he was ill in bed when really she just didn’t want to let anyone see him. Eventually a local doctor named Dr. Marlow managed to lure Daniel’s mother out of the house whilst the doctor sneaked into Daniel’s room and checked him for any illnesses to which it turned out he was fine! The doctor took Daniel away from his mum to the doctor’s own house with his family of 3 children, Sophie, Mary and Cecilia and wife Mrs. Marlow.

Upon arriving at the doctor’s house Sophie is super excited to meet Daniel because they’re of similar age and she sadly didn’t have many other friends. Mary and Cecilia, however were older so didn’t really care for Daniel much. After the doctor’s findings about Daniel’s mothers’ very strange behaviour he got her taken to a mental asylum and soon after most of her belonging were burnt too! However Daniel wanted to keep his mother’s dollhouse so took it with him before it could be burnt.

Not long after Daniel’s mother had been admitted into the metal asylum, Liliana (Daniel’s mother) committed suicide showing how unstable she really was after being taken away from Daniel who in her head was only being protected by her, making sure nothing would happen to him! Obviously once Daniel heard the news about his mother he was critically hurt and blamed himself for leaving her.

Since meeting Sophie and getting the doll house from his mother, Daniel and Sophie were constantly making up new adventures together in the doll house. He was pretty shaken up after finding out about his mother but whilst playing with Sophie once again she found a hidden trap door which none of them had seen before. Inside the trap door was a very mysterious doll with two faces on each side of its head, they thought it was pretty spooky but decided to name it anyway and called it Severn and played with it too.

This doll they found wasn’t just any ordinary doll though, once Sophie was holding it she started acting very differently towards Daniel saying mean things which was completely unlike her personality. The doll went on to ruin future doll house play sessions somehow always finding a way to work its way into the middle of a story and ruin it however it could. At this point in The Devil Walks the story starts to take on a twist of something spooky which sets the scene for the following chapters.

Whilst all this was happening Dr. Marlow was still on the look out for any families which could take Daniel as his own family was already too big for him to handle alone so eventually the doctor found that Daniel had an uncle who could take care of him named Captain Severn! Daniel had never met any relatives other than his mother and had never mentioned his name to him ever so it was a shock to him that the nickname they had given the doll was the same as his Uncles! Daniel did not want to leave the doctors house or Sophie so the doctor made a deal with Daniel where he could come back and live with them if he didn’t want to stay with his uncle after a month which he agreed to.

Daniel was put on a train to visit his uncle’s house and when he arrived at the house he quickly realised that the house looked exactly like the doll house! Daniel wasn’t able to bring the doll house with him but as he was sure he would be returning to the doctors house after a month he didn’t mind. Upon meeting Captain Severn he was terrified to see how much he resembled the mysterious doll they had found too!

While his stay at his uncles house, Daniel met two new important people named Martha and Thomas who had been working at the house for a long time and remembered his mother Liliana very well from her childhood living at the house. Thomas was the gardener and was the one who had built the doll house and dolls which went alongside it. Martha was the cook of the house and also mentioned being very close to Liliana in her childhood. Daniel asked Thomas about the mysterious doll they had found hidden in the doll house to which he was told of the ancient powers it held and how sinister and evil it was, this made Daniel come to a realisation of to why Sophie started acting so strange since finding the doll.

The story then went on to explain that Daniel’s mother also had two other brothers which died named Edmund and Samuel, the evidence for their death all pointed at Captain Severn who was also know as Jack. Daniel then learnt that his mother had been trapped in the house by Jack and it was Martha and Thomas who helped her escape to start her own life in safety.

Whilst Daniel was in his uncle’s house all Captain Severn seemed to care about was the doll house, which Daniel fibbed telling him that it had been burnt with the rest of his mothers items. However Severn somehow knew that this was a lie and contacted the Marlows who told him directly that the doll house was with them, Captain Severn told them that Daniel was missing it and asked for it to be brought to the house just so he could get hold of it himself!

The next morning when the doll house was due to be delivered, Captain Severn was furious at Daniel and told him that he was going to kill him and keep it a secret by telling the Marlows that he has just gone out on a trip to the sea! Severn locked Daniel in the attic and started to dig him a grave to hide his body, however Daniel had played with the doll house his entire life and knew all the hidden passageways and managed to escape.

In the distance Daniel could see a cart delivering the doll house so before the cart reached the house Daniel jumped into the back of it and took the Severn doll which started to burn him as he held it! He ran back in to the house and threw it into the furnace, however it wasn’t over and the doll jumped back out of the furnace setting fire to the entire house creating a blaze so strong that nobody could extinguish it. In the end the fire burnt the house, the doll and the doll house to ashes. It turned out that Captain Severn and the doll were connected too because as the doll was destroyed so was Captain Severn!

The story ended with Daniel returning to Marlows where lived happily and stayed best friends with Sophie, he also visited the resting place of his mum often too now with the understanding of her horrible past.

Final Thoughts

Overall my personal favorite part of The Devil Walks book was near the end where Daniel was trapped in the attic and realised the house was an exact replica of the dollhouse; allowing him to find the secret doors and make his escape! It makes me think how awesome a dollhouse with tons of secrets would really be!

I felt like the saddest part of the story was where Daniel was taken away from his mother which devolved into him discovering that she had been taken to a mental asylum and then later finding out what she had killed herself 😨

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone as it’s full of drama, mystery and much more. Me and my friends loved reading this book where we chatted for days about the story!

For my next book to read I’m planning on reading though The Hunger Games: Catching Fire as I finished the first one and got hooked with how really good it was! I’m also very curious on what will happen next in the story so!

Have you read The Devil Walks book? What were your thoughts on it? What else have you been reading? Let me know down in the comments below!
Tata for now ❤