The Glass Cage

A series of brutal and bizarre murders has London on edge. Near the dismembered corpse of each victim, the killer has scrawled cryptic quotations from the eighteenth-century mystic poet William Blake. Baffled, the police enlist the aid of Damon Reade, a brilliant but reclusive Blake scholar, who reluctantly agrees to help. Reade’s combination of instinctive deduction and psychic penetration leads him to Gaylord Sundheim, who may be the murderer. But when Reade befriends Sundheim and becomes convinced he is incapable of having committed the crimes, is he right and Sundheim innocent? Or is Reade falling into a clever psychopath’s deadly trap that could make him the next victim?

Colin Wilson (1930-2013) called The Glass Cage (1966) “perhaps my own favourite among my novels”. Both a page-turning serial killer mystery and an exploration of Wilson’s philosophy, The Glass Cage was praised by critics on its original appearance and remains just as gripping and compulsively readable today. This edition, the first since 1978, includes a new introduction by Geoff Ward.

“Intelligent psycho-thriller . . . the plot is ingenious, well-turned and never facile. A compulsive damp Saturday afternoon read.” – Observer

“Literate and enthralling . . . Far beyond the conventional mystery.” – Hollywood Reporter

“I read with something like fascination this extraordinary book about a multiple murderer who accompanies each corpse with a quotation from Blake.” – Guardian

“[A] splendid story . . . a gripping thriller about lust and perversion.” – Sunday Times (London)