Joseph Malderoyce is a philosophical man with a taste for Mondrian and something of an obsession with tuberculosis. When he inherits a large sum of money, Joseph leaves his stultifying job at a law firm and moves to an unremarkable town in the far north of an unnamed country. There, in a house on the edge of a pine forest, he lives in solitude until the morning he finds a badly beaten young boy asleep on his porch. Abel, apparently a helpless orphan, gradually insinuates himself into Joseph's life, becoming his closest confidant. But as their relationship deepens, Abel's behavior turns cruel and even sadistic, and Joseph is forced to confront a growing evil in his house -- a darkness that seems to emanate as much from him as from the child. Soon Joseph begins to be visited by fantasies of violence he may not be able to control.

Meticulously crafted and irresistibly creepy, The King's Evil is a provocative and unsettling modern morality tale that probes man's intrinsic nature and the unilluminated recesses of his psyche. It is a mesmerizing debut from a brilliant young writer.