The Devouring

Ryerson Biergarten #2

by F.W. Armstrong (Pseudonym), T.M. Wright

The entity is ancient. It has taken form before, in other places, other guises.

This time the place is Buffalo. The form is that of a magnificent woman...created from the dreams of a child.

The eternal hunger is immense. The entity must feed. And its prey is human.

Psychic detective Ryerson Biergarten is appalled at the savagery of the first killings. Far worse lies ahead, for the detective as well as the city. He is falling in love with a wonderful woman - but Joan will die - unless he can stop the Devouring.

Genres: Horror, Occult Detective, Fiction

284 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1987

About the author

Pen name of T.M. Wright

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ryerson Biergarten books have always been my favorites of T.M. Wright's works. The first two, The Changing and The Devouring, were published under the pseudonym of F.W. Armstrong in the mid-1980s, and the other two, Goodlow's Ghosts and The Ascending, were published under his own name in the mid-1990s. Biergarten is a psychic who works with the forces of law and order to solve horrific crimes. With his faithful canine companion, Creosote, he helps both the living and the not-so-much who are in need of aid. The books are full of interesting and amusing investigations, along with Wright's usual ambiguous and occasionally seemingly contradictory interactions with ghosts, but Ryerson also deals with werewolves, vampires, and other popular demons of the day. They're a bit dated in spots, I'm sure (the covers of the first two are very much a relic of their era), but skimming through I think they would still hold pretty well. Wright was an excellent writer who excelled at creating a dreamlike quality in his quiet horror novels, an aspect which is present but secondary to rigorous plotting and good pacing in the Biergarten books. Ryerson was a literary descendant of Hodgson's Carnacki and a forerunner of Butcher's Dresden.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 Stars

First the good things about this book. One T.M. Write is a fantastic horror novelist. I really enjoy his writing style, his prose, and his creepy imagination. Two, Little Boy Lost is a great read of his that I gave 5 stars.  Three, the setting of this book had me intrigued as it takes place at Buffalo, New York, my hometown. Much of its action take place on Delaware Avenue, all places very familiar to me...cool cool.

Unfortunately, this novella is about vampires. If I had bothered to look into to this from the start, I probably would not have read it. I am done with vampires for the time being. Sure, he puts an interesting spin on the classical vamp, but yawn...I have had enough. Wright spices up this book by having a psychic detective on the case. The writing and the details are all fine but in the end it is about vampires and to me that really sucks. 

Be sure to check out other stories by T.M.Wright, he is a good author.

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

First half of this book is great and Armstrong had me hooked.

Second half completely fell apart and didn’t even feel like the same story.

It’s a shame because I think Armstrong (Wright) actually had something going here. Too bad he squandered it.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started out well, with what seems to be a vampire running around killing people, but it quickly gets disjointed and loses the story. We get to see Ryerson again, but he is not in the story that much and he's not really investigating anything. This is more of a collection of experiences from loosely connected characters and how the vampire affects them. Nothing is really explained at the end and there is no closure. There is no real over arching story like an investigation or any kind of centralized struggle, except a collection of seemingly random people dealing with a vampire. Overall 2 out of 5 stars.

[Angela(demonsangel) Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rated it a four because of the story. I had a little difficulty understanding exactly what the author was trying to tell the reader.
The narrator Paul Heitsch did a magnificent job narrating this story. He brought each and every character to life. The changing of accents and distinguishing each characters voices was superb.