Due this May, Clive Barker’s first novel for adults since 2007 promises to ‘make your worst nightmares seem like bedtime stories’

Horror legend Clive Barker is set to make a return to his most iconic creation this year, as he prepares to say goodbye to the priest of hell immortalised in his Hellraiser stories, Pinhead.

Barker’s long-anticipated novel The Scarlet Gospels will be published this May, said UK publisher Macmillan. The book has been in the works for over 20 years, with Barker originally envisaging it as a short story. It now runs to more than 350 pages, and is Barker’s first novel for adults since 2007.

“Pinhead needed to say goodbye. He had a farewell speech to make. It was truly as simple as that,” Barker announced through his agent.

The character made his first appearance in Barker’s 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart – the story on which the horror film Hellraiser, written and directed by the author, was based. It sees “pleasure seeker” Frank Cotton stumble upon a mysterious box in pursuit of the ultimate sensory experience, only to release monsters including Pinhead.

“Its voice, unlike that of its companion, was light and breathy – the voice of an excited girl,” writes Barker in that story. “Every inch of its head had been tattooed with an intricate grid, and at every intersection of horizontal and vertical axes a jewelled pin driven through to the bone. Its tongue was similarly decorated.”

Wayne Brookes, Barker’s editor at Macmillan, said that fans had been waiting for The Scarlet Gospels for “at least 10” years, “and you only have to look online to see the excitement that has been mounting about this book”.

“As Clive’s fans know all too well, he’s been involved in the movie and graphic novel industry for years and many of his creations have been transported to the big screen. Taking all the other stuff he does into consideration, it’s no wonder that this book has taken some time to complete. To use an old cliché it really is worth the wait,” said Brookes.

The Scarlet Gospels will also feature another of Barker’s recurring characters, detective Harry D’Amour, who will go up against Pinhead. The publisher described the completed work as “bloody, terrifying, and brilliantly complex, fans and newcomers alike will not be disappointed by the epic, visionary tale that is The Scarlet Gospels. Barker’s horror will make your worst nightmares seem like bedtime stories.”

Brookes added that the story would be set in hell, amid “one almighty battleg”. “With the Hellraiser franchise Clive created a vision of hell through his own eyes. Suddenly this weird and terrifying world had a new image, and it’s that fantastical setting that the fans are desperate to see again. There’s nothing conventional about Clive Barker’s world of nightmares, his style is distinctive and unique,” said Brookes.

The adventures of Pinhead have also been continued in comic form, as well as the Hellraiser film franchise, latter episodes of which have been condemned by Barker.

“[Hellraiser Inferno] is just an abomination. I want to actively go on record as saying I warn people away from the movie. It’s really terrible and it’s shockingly bad, and should never have been made. So I want to give Pinhead a good send-off. I want to do it right. If we are going to get rid of the old guy, let’s do it with some style,” said the novelist in 2000. “Because after this there will be no more Pinhead stories. Because this story is the end of Pinhead. This story will mark his death.”