The return of a horror classic by a true master of terror."Hilda Lawrence writes a smooth, insidious kind of chiller, one that doens't need bangs and shrieks to achieve its effects. It sets up a rare atmosphere of unlocalized, disembodied terror." New York TimesIsobel Ford returns from a life spent almost entirely in boarding school to the remote, four-turreted house in the woods that has always frightened her...and only days later, her eccentric father kills himself by driving off a cliff. She's haunted by his shocking death...and by the house itself, which she knows in her bones hides terrifying secrets. And yet she is determined to discover the truth...no matter how horrifying it will be.
"A really literate thriller. Lawrence is one of America's finest tellers of suspense tales, She builds her story to a crashing finale. Absolutely tops in the field." Montgomery Advertiser
"One of the scariest yarns in many a cold moon. The plot is a honey and something really new." Los Angeles Daily News
"Lawrence can build up horror as well as anyone in the business. A real find." Boston Globe
"Emotional rather than deductive process, this has suspense for its most important ingredient. Quality class." Kirkus Reviews
An ex-soldier’s search for his missing lover leads him to a house where men are forced into the sex trade as gigolos for desperate women, including a Detroit widow with uncontrollable desire, a suburban housewife avenging her faithless husband by acting out her rage in bed, a runaway from a boarding school, an artist who likes to do more than just paint nude men, and a psychologically-unhinged Latina who gets off on violence.
They stripped him of his badge, framed him for murder, and tossed him into the middle of a gangland war.
Throughout the 1950s, Richard worked by day as an interior designer and at night as a successful writer of paperback original crime novels. His first book, I’ll Find You was a massive, multi-million copy bestseller that almost single-handedly put Fawcett Crest’s famed “Gold Medal Paperbacks” on the literary map. He followed that book with four sequels in the “Johnny Maguire” series and four stand-alone novels.
Hal Williams is a specialist with one particular talent to sell: contract murders that appear to be accidents. He’s a professional who does his job with cool, calm, and calculated detachment… or so it seems. It’s all part of a long-term plan for ultimate revenge. But just when everything is coming together…he meets Unne, a mobster’s coldly sensual mistress, a kindred spirit with a dark, devastating secret of her own… and everything changes.
The judge bangs his gavel. The murder trial is about to begin. The defendant, Charles Adams is so scared, his knees are shaking... but If he knew how dire his situation really is, he’d be screaming. The defendant’s wife is wiggling with pleasure. She can’t wait to see her husband hang. The dead girl’s parents are quaking with fury as they take their seats… they want Adams to die for what he did. But things aren’t quite as they seem. Charles Adams is innocent. And doomed. Because the real killer is one of the jurors… and he’s certain what the verdict will be.