The Murals
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
In this multi-layered psychological mystery, photographer Jason Poe is transfixed by a disturbing set of murals he encounters in the attic of an abandoned house, and resolves to uncover the secret behind them.
"The murals hit me hard. First came terror, then awe. It was only after I’d taken them in that I began to feel their immense power."
Jason Poe, a former war photographer, has been breaking into abandoned houses for an art project to document what previous tenants have left behind. One night he finds more than expected when he ascends to an attic and is confronted by a haunting set of murals.
The murals cover all four walls of the cramped space and hypnotise Jason. Convinced there’s an important story behind them, he embarks upon a quest to identify their creator and uncover their meaning. To do so Jason recruits several friends, including Joan Nguyen, a reporter for Calista Times-Dispatch. As the team delve deeper they uncover a mystery involving accusations of satanism, police corruption, a scandal involving a wealthy Calista family, a series of contemporary arson attacks . . . and an enigmatic patient in a Swiss psychiatric clinic.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This suspense novel from Bayer (The Luzern Photograph) doesn't make the most of its intriguing hook the discovery of a room lined with creepy murals or the warning in its preface about the reliability of the story's several narrators. Jason Poe, who's embarked on a multiyear project he calls Leavings: The Things They Left Behind, enters abandoned houses to photograph "the detritus folks abandon when they hurriedly leave a place." A friend's tip takes Poe to a boarded-up mansion in their "rust-belt town, Calista." When Poe goes to the house and reaches a gazebolike structure on its roof, he's stunned to find that all the walls are covered with life-size images of intense and unfriendly looking people who seem to be staring at him. Along with two friends, an art teacher and an investigative reporter, Poe looks into the history of the dwelling and the origin of its extraordinary artwork, which may be connected to a cult that targeted runaways. Readers will struggle to stay engaged with the meandering plot and characters who lack resonance. This is a missed opportunity for a gifted author.
