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Black Devil Spine: The Martin Springer Story
Dan Gere is a bestselling author in desperate need of another book idea. When he meets Martin Springer, a reclusive painter and fetish photographer, it seems he has discovered the solution to his problem. What follows, however, is a sickening descent into insanity, sexual violence and depravity like few have ever witnessed. Erotophonophilia, autassassinophilia, biastophilia-a deadly trio of paraphilias where normality does not apply and desire is synonymous with death. Some victims are more willing than others …
- GenresHorror
461 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 16, 2016
7 people are currently reading
108 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 27, 2020
Man this book wow what can I say that would do it justice.
I jumped in this with an open mind as I always do but WTF. Read it and love it is all I'm saying.
I jumped in this with an open mind as I always do but WTF. Read it and love it is all I'm saying.
August 1, 2017
(Some slight spoilers)
I read Doug Brunell’s Black Devil Spine one year ago while I was working at a local festival. It had been sitting on my nightstand, glaring at me, daring me to read it, even though it wasn’t the sort of book I normally read. Sexually explicit stress-out suspense book? No thanks. Yet there it was, mocking me to read it.
Once I picked it up, the damned thing wouldn't let go of me. It took up every spare moment I had for two days. I then passed it to one of my co-workers who brought it back to me a day later, shaking her head and stammering, “That was a contagious read. I couldn’t stop.” When she eventually looked me in the eye, I could tell that she too was changed by reading this novel - that she too was doubting herself just a little, and asking herself “What is wrong with me? Why did I enjoy reading this?”
So, what is it about Black Devil Spine that is so difficult? Was it the brutality? Sure, that’s part of it. The author’s style relentlessly gut-punches the sensibilities of the reader, and is engrossingly graphic. But there is something else… ...an uneasy, greasy marinade this story has been dipped in.
The strength of the novel was the relationship between the two main characters. At first, it seems painfully obvious which person was the antagonist, and which was the one the reader should be pulling for. Yet, as the story goes on, it almost seems like like there was no protagonist anymore. The narrator shifted subtly over time, switching from an empty shell of a person to becoming an amoral entity, and his own worst enemy. The antagonist maintained a model of deluded self-liberation, countered with an almost respectable passion for life.
The book does weaken when it came to some of the ancillary characters. One in particular, a vagabond working in the local drug trade, felt steeped in stereotypes.
The potency of the novel overcomes any shortcomings. It left me questioning my own morality, as I searched for the cuts I felt opening up all over myself after reading it. The wounds could not be found because all of the bruising was internal.
One year later, I can still feel them.
I read Doug Brunell’s Black Devil Spine one year ago while I was working at a local festival. It had been sitting on my nightstand, glaring at me, daring me to read it, even though it wasn’t the sort of book I normally read. Sexually explicit stress-out suspense book? No thanks. Yet there it was, mocking me to read it.
Once I picked it up, the damned thing wouldn't let go of me. It took up every spare moment I had for two days. I then passed it to one of my co-workers who brought it back to me a day later, shaking her head and stammering, “That was a contagious read. I couldn’t stop.” When she eventually looked me in the eye, I could tell that she too was changed by reading this novel - that she too was doubting herself just a little, and asking herself “What is wrong with me? Why did I enjoy reading this?”
So, what is it about Black Devil Spine that is so difficult? Was it the brutality? Sure, that’s part of it. The author’s style relentlessly gut-punches the sensibilities of the reader, and is engrossingly graphic. But there is something else… ...an uneasy, greasy marinade this story has been dipped in.
The strength of the novel was the relationship between the two main characters. At first, it seems painfully obvious which person was the antagonist, and which was the one the reader should be pulling for. Yet, as the story goes on, it almost seems like like there was no protagonist anymore. The narrator shifted subtly over time, switching from an empty shell of a person to becoming an amoral entity, and his own worst enemy. The antagonist maintained a model of deluded self-liberation, countered with an almost respectable passion for life.
The book does weaken when it came to some of the ancillary characters. One in particular, a vagabond working in the local drug trade, felt steeped in stereotypes.
The potency of the novel overcomes any shortcomings. It left me questioning my own morality, as I searched for the cuts I felt opening up all over myself after reading it. The wounds could not be found because all of the bruising was internal.
One year later, I can still feel them.
November 2, 2019
Wow
This book was recommended to me by a friend on good reads and while it‘s kinda different to the stuff I normally read, I enjoyed it!
It’s a really intense read from start to finish and certainly not for the faint hearted!
Lots of lots of sex scenes, but they are needed to fully understand the dark natures of the characters and are pretty well written!
It’s an extremely dark book and leaves you thinking wtf at times but defiantly glad I read it!
This book was recommended to me by a friend on good reads and while it‘s kinda different to the stuff I normally read, I enjoyed it!
It’s a really intense read from start to finish and certainly not for the faint hearted!
Lots of lots of sex scenes, but they are needed to fully understand the dark natures of the characters and are pretty well written!
It’s an extremely dark book and leaves you thinking wtf at times but defiantly glad I read it!
December 11, 2019
Just one thing I would like to say, dear Dan: 
This book had me on the edge several times, I won't lie and say it was easy to read, some parts were indeed hard, but over all it was pretty good. It messes up with your head, as a good book should.
You might end up thinking why? WTF did I just read?
This book had me on the edge several times, I won't lie and say it was easy to read, some parts were indeed hard, but over all it was pretty good. It messes up with your head, as a good book should.
You might end up thinking why? WTF did I just read?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 16, 2022
I can’t seem to get this book off my mind.
March 7, 2024
this was an addicting read but i was uncomfortable with the level of dark and twisted
February 16, 2020
This book is so chock-full of erotically depraved stuff that it might have been custom-written for me. The best part is, all the twisted stuff is held together by a thread of a very logical story - one of mental and psychological breakdown, not a Joaquin-Phoenix-Joker breakdown where it's the world that fails an extra-sensitive man but one where a man fails the good, innocent side of him, giving in to one temptation after another in a series of rather biblical falls, further and further into the darkest pits of depravity.
Martin Springer is a fetish photographer and artist with a penchant for hurting women who love being hurt and Dan is a writer with a guilt-ridden past which comes back to haunt him again and again as his collusion with Martin in all permutations and complexions of sex and killing makes him wonder if he hadn't always loved the mix of sex and violence. And it made me reflect and question a few gross injustices about genre too. Extreme horror deserves a larger readership than it gets because it's neither devoid of great characterization nor story. The bane of its existence is it's demand for a strong stomach.
The last ten percent of the book is so well-written that it toys with the reader's mind, letting him into the emotional-hurricane ridden hell that Dan's mind has become.
Amazing stuff. I hope Mr Brunell writes more of such books, although this one will be hard to better.
Martin Springer is a fetish photographer and artist with a penchant for hurting women who love being hurt and Dan is a writer with a guilt-ridden past which comes back to haunt him again and again as his collusion with Martin in all permutations and complexions of sex and killing makes him wonder if he hadn't always loved the mix of sex and violence. And it made me reflect and question a few gross injustices about genre too. Extreme horror deserves a larger readership than it gets because it's neither devoid of great characterization nor story. The bane of its existence is it's demand for a strong stomach.
The last ten percent of the book is so well-written that it toys with the reader's mind, letting him into the emotional-hurricane ridden hell that Dan's mind has become.
Amazing stuff. I hope Mr Brunell writes more of such books, although this one will be hard to better.
February 5, 2020
In many ways, Doug Brunell's book is a character study. Although the narrator makes it clear at the outset that he is unreliable because the written word itself is a lie, he promises that his third or fourth version of the story is accurate, self-incriminating and brutal. Written from the perspective of Dan, a true crime author who rescued a 15 year old from a child sex trafficking ring and profited off of her story and his heroism, the novel follows his attempts to write the second of three books under the contract with his publisher. At the outset, he promises that there will not be a third book. And by the end, you know why.
I read this book in less than a day. It is compelling, in the way any downward spiral or accident can be compelling. What sets it apart from a run of the mill effort at a suspenseful thriller, however, is the character study of Dan. Dan's journey into the sex trafficking/child pornography world that inspired his first book has left him divorced, single and potentially unstable. Early on in the story, after he meets and integrates his life with Martin's, we learn that his act of heroism had a very dark side that culminated in sexual violence. Dan's exterior self is a facade, and he has not used therapy or personal disclosure to reveal what he did to any others, to seek help. Maybe because he likes it, and is thrilled by it.
Burnell has raised some interesting questions about male sexuality here. Whether the result of biological, psychological or social forces, or some mix of all of them, male sexuality, in its own way, has been as feared and repressed as the female variety. The quip that rape, sexual harassment or other forms of sexual violence are about power ignores the very potent way that power dynamics have been part of sexual expression for all of human history. Martin's brutal takedown of fetish BDSM culture also reveals the inherent problem behind our attempts to sublimate these sexually violent urges in various directions: BDSM is performative. The participants use "toys" to "play" with one another, complete with magic words that operate to ensure the safety of the game. But how do you ensure a sexually egalitarian world if male sexuality has an inherently brutal edge? Rape "fantasies" abound in men and women, according to available psychological studies and literature. And increasingly, neurological studies reveal that sex and violence share some of the same circuits.
The story of Dan and Martin is an extreme case, although there are plenty of non-fictional parallel stories. But Dan's dark descent raises some disturbing questions about our failure to confront the link between human arousal and human brutality. And also, implicitly, to confront the link between our lurid fascination with true crime depictions of sexual violence and the possibility of some deeper desire to have insight into it on a more visceral level. Some of the writing here is as dark as anything that Peter Sotos has written. That's an accomplishment in and of itself.
You will feel things reading this novel. Many of them will be unpleasant feelings. And I can think of no higher compliment for a writer.
I read this book in less than a day. It is compelling, in the way any downward spiral or accident can be compelling. What sets it apart from a run of the mill effort at a suspenseful thriller, however, is the character study of Dan. Dan's journey into the sex trafficking/child pornography world that inspired his first book has left him divorced, single and potentially unstable. Early on in the story, after he meets and integrates his life with Martin's, we learn that his act of heroism had a very dark side that culminated in sexual violence. Dan's exterior self is a facade, and he has not used therapy or personal disclosure to reveal what he did to any others, to seek help. Maybe because he likes it, and is thrilled by it.
Burnell has raised some interesting questions about male sexuality here. Whether the result of biological, psychological or social forces, or some mix of all of them, male sexuality, in its own way, has been as feared and repressed as the female variety. The quip that rape, sexual harassment or other forms of sexual violence are about power ignores the very potent way that power dynamics have been part of sexual expression for all of human history. Martin's brutal takedown of fetish BDSM culture also reveals the inherent problem behind our attempts to sublimate these sexually violent urges in various directions: BDSM is performative. The participants use "toys" to "play" with one another, complete with magic words that operate to ensure the safety of the game. But how do you ensure a sexually egalitarian world if male sexuality has an inherently brutal edge? Rape "fantasies" abound in men and women, according to available psychological studies and literature. And increasingly, neurological studies reveal that sex and violence share some of the same circuits.
The story of Dan and Martin is an extreme case, although there are plenty of non-fictional parallel stories. But Dan's dark descent raises some disturbing questions about our failure to confront the link between human arousal and human brutality. And also, implicitly, to confront the link between our lurid fascination with true crime depictions of sexual violence and the possibility of some deeper desire to have insight into it on a more visceral level. Some of the writing here is as dark as anything that Peter Sotos has written. That's an accomplishment in and of itself.
You will feel things reading this novel. Many of them will be unpleasant feelings. And I can think of no higher compliment for a writer.
April 23, 2023
I wanted so badly to give this book 5 stars.
It probably does deserve 5 stars.
It's a long book, one that will infiltrate your mind. The characters are very human. Maybe too human. Could that be why I chose 4 stars instead of 5?
An author, looking for his next bestselling non-fiction story, stumbles across an artist that is worthy of a biography. The only hang-up is that the artist is a very private person. This artist, Martin Springer, has never done an official interview. Nor is there very much info about him on the internet.
Backstory on the author.... His first best seller was a non-fiction story of him searching for a missing girl. That led him down a rabbit hole of the dangers of the world.
This book ALMOST gave me a hangover. Ya know that feeling when you keep thinking about the story? That is a great testament for a book. The downside is that the longer I thought about it, the more I saw the flaws. I over thunk it. It is fiction, and I'm fully aware that for fiction you need to suspend your beliefs and give some leeway for the story to come together.
This book gives sex way too much power. This book does delve into the fragile human psyche and how easy it is to tap into our internal animal instincts. Sex and violence (which happens to be the majority of Springer's art) go hand in hand. Especially if you tap too deep into the pair combined.
I did like Springer's guidance and the way he explained BDSM to the author. Very interesting.
I actually like Springer for being true to himself, even though essentially other people would see him as a villain.
After getting to know the artist, I feel like there would be way more chatter about him on the net. Good and bad. He wasn't as a secretive as the beginning of the book portrayed, but that had to be the way for this story to work.
I did check the publication year (2016) because sometimes stories are dated. In the past, the internet was a different place than it is today. So this story isn't really dated.
It's hard to describe unless you've read this book, which is definitely worth reading.
If you're into stories about humans and their animalistic instincts, jump on this one.
It probably does deserve 5 stars.
It's a long book, one that will infiltrate your mind. The characters are very human. Maybe too human. Could that be why I chose 4 stars instead of 5?
An author, looking for his next bestselling non-fiction story, stumbles across an artist that is worthy of a biography. The only hang-up is that the artist is a very private person. This artist, Martin Springer, has never done an official interview. Nor is there very much info about him on the internet.
Backstory on the author.... His first best seller was a non-fiction story of him searching for a missing girl. That led him down a rabbit hole of the dangers of the world.
This book ALMOST gave me a hangover. Ya know that feeling when you keep thinking about the story? That is a great testament for a book. The downside is that the longer I thought about it, the more I saw the flaws. I over thunk it. It is fiction, and I'm fully aware that for fiction you need to suspend your beliefs and give some leeway for the story to come together.
This book gives sex way too much power. This book does delve into the fragile human psyche and how easy it is to tap into our internal animal instincts. Sex and violence (which happens to be the majority of Springer's art) go hand in hand. Especially if you tap too deep into the pair combined.
I did like Springer's guidance and the way he explained BDSM to the author. Very interesting.
I actually like Springer for being true to himself, even though essentially other people would see him as a villain.
After getting to know the artist, I feel like there would be way more chatter about him on the net. Good and bad. He wasn't as a secretive as the beginning of the book portrayed, but that had to be the way for this story to work.
I did check the publication year (2016) because sometimes stories are dated. In the past, the internet was a different place than it is today. So this story isn't really dated.
It's hard to describe unless you've read this book, which is definitely worth reading.
If you're into stories about humans and their animalistic instincts, jump on this one.
December 16, 2020
Honestly, really struggling between a 3 and 4 star rating.
I see that Doug Brunell hasn't written anything in a few years now. I feel bad for that because this Book is pretty damned good. The Cons against it were that it needed proper editing. If Mr Brunell had trimmed about 100 pages off of this then I think I would be contemplating either 4 or 5 stars.
The story itself... I'm a huge fan of Matthew Stokoe post-Cows. High Life and Colony of Whores were amazing. I'm a big fan of Kristopher Triana's They All Died Screaming. Black Devil Spine would appeal to the same fans that love these books. If not, then you're probably going to need therapy after you read this.
I see that Doug Brunell hasn't written anything in a few years now. I feel bad for that because this Book is pretty damned good. The Cons against it were that it needed proper editing. If Mr Brunell had trimmed about 100 pages off of this then I think I would be contemplating either 4 or 5 stars.
The story itself... I'm a huge fan of Matthew Stokoe post-Cows. High Life and Colony of Whores were amazing. I'm a big fan of Kristopher Triana's They All Died Screaming. Black Devil Spine would appeal to the same fans that love these books. If not, then you're probably going to need therapy after you read this.
November 6, 2020
Loved it! Dark, filthy, twisted and everything dirty! When a writer named Martin decides to write a book on an artist that is an enigma to everyone, little did he know how it would rock his world. Martin finds himself emerged in a world of sex, murder, sex and more sex and trying to find a way to escape with his life.
July 31, 2023
This book was so fucking gross and revolting I am going to burn it.
January 31, 2024
I feel like I need to get therapy or read so thing to cleanse my soul. How disturbing....
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews