The Devil Pulls the Strings is the pulse-pounding first tale in the Archivist series.

This second edition exists because readers, producers, and studio executives took the time to share what they wanted: a protagonist who arrives sooner, whose motivation hits harder, who drives the story instead of chasing it, along with deeper backstory and expanded details. Their feedback made this story better, and this edition is the result.

For readers who felt lost keeping track of the book's rich cast of characters, a character glossary was added to the front of the book. For fantasy readers who craved deeper detail on the world and its mythology rooted in authentic Slavic folklore, a comprehensive glossary was added to the back.

The Librarians. The Magicians. The Dresden Files. Neil Gaiman's Sandman. The Devil Pulls the Strings belongs in that conversation, and then goes somewhere none of them have gone before.

Set across modern-day Wentzville, MO, New York City, and 1813 Genoa, Italy, the story weaves bromance, Slavic mythology inherited from oral tradition, secret societies, Paganini's music, and time travel into something that operates on layers upon layers upon layers.

Twenty-two-year-old Boone Daniels experiences the world differently. Music floods his vision with color and taste. Action words materialize around him like panels leaping off a comic book page. And his memory never lets anything go.

Not helping is the evil spirit, a wendigo, that has haunted him since age six, nor the debilitating panic attacks and gut-wrenching guilt he feels for almost killing his best friend in a joust. And when he fills in for that same injured friend at a New York gig, he goes to meet the gig's contact at a NYC brownstone, only to watch him fall from the balcony as gunfire erupts around him.

Boone barely escapes and uncovers a sinister plot to perform Paganini's secret sonata that summons the Devil, to be used to trap Baba Yaga. Not the two-dimensional villain you have seen before, but the full, ancient, terrifying supernatural force of Slavic folklore. And destroy modern-day New York City.

Now he is racing through time to capture a cursed melody before it ends everything. A Romani immortal, steampunk vampires, and Baba Yaga herself set the stage for war. Boone will have to risk death for redemption.

All he really wants is to keep a promise to a friend. The same friend he almost killed last Sunday.

Can a small-town Missouri musician outplay the supernatural and save NYC's soul?

If you love tortured heroes, epic battles, time travel, twisted history, and secret societies colliding, and a Baba Yaga rendered in her full folkloric glory for the first time, you will love J. W. Zarek's spectacular page-turner, The Devil Pulls the Strings, Second Edition.

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• Literature & FictionLiterary CriticismMovements & PeriodsBy Century19th Century

• Publication Date: February 28, 2026
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 393 Pages
• File Size: 16 KB