The Faustian Gambit: A Tale of the Praeternatural

Portia is a young Belfast poet. Together with her fiancé Myles, an aspiring novelist, she accepts an invitation to stay at an old manor house in rural Ireland. Their host is Brinsley, an eccentric but learned individual. Myles embarks on his first novel, a reworking of Poe's “Fall of the House of Usher.” But his laptop goes missing in sinister circumstances. Portia finds a replacement in Belfast and buys it at a bargain price. They discover that its owner died by his own hand. He was a designer and typographer, creator of a mysterious font called Pugnello. Myles discovers that he cannot delete Pugnello from his laptop. Yet the more he writes, the better his writing becomes, until it's indistinguishable from the style of Edgar Allan Poe. To Portia's dismay, her fiancé appears to be taken over by the personality of another. He vanishes, leaving behind a note—and clues revealed by modern technology. Brinsley and Portia follow his trail. It leads to Scotland, and the truth behind Myles's possession is revealed. Faust, the notorious man of legend, is behind it. Brinsley must call upon supernatural forces in order to rescue Myles — and to save civilization from disaster.

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