In the Dark of the Night
A Novel
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Summer vacation becomes a season in hell for an ordinary family who unwittingly stir something invisible, insidious, and insatiable from its secret slumber–unleashing a wave of horror only the darkest evil could create, that only a master of spine-tingling terror like John Saul could orchestrate. For deep in the shadows in the dark of the night lurks something as big as life . . . and as real as death.
It has waited seven years for someone to come back to the rambling lakeside house called Pinecrest, which has stood empty since its last owner went missing. For upscale Chicago couple Dan and Merrill Brewster, the old midwestern manse is an ideal retreat, and for their kids, Eric and Marci, it’s the perfect place to spend a lazy summer exploring. Which is how Eric and his teenage friends discover the curious cache of discarded objects stowed in a hidden room of Pinecrest’s carriage house. The bladeless hacksaws, shadeless lamps, tables with missing legs, headless axe handle, and other unremarkable items add up to a pile of junk. Yet someone took the trouble to inventory each worthless relic in a cryptic ledger. It has all the makings of a great mystery–whispering, coaxing, demanding to be solved.
But the more the boys devote themselves to restoring the forgotten possessions and piecing together the puzzle behind them, the more their fascination deepens into obsession. Soon their days are consumed with tending the strange, secret collection–while their nights become plagued by ever more ghastly dreams, nightmares that soon seep into reality. And when a horrifying discovery surfaces, so does the chilling truth–about the terrifying events that rocked the town seven years before, the mysterious disappearance of Pinecrest’s last resident, and a twisted legacy with a malevolent life of its own . . . and a bottomless hunger for new victims.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of this unoriginal but undeniably creepy horror chiller from bestseller Saul (Perfect Nightmare), Eric Brewster and two high school pals, Kent Newell and Tad Sparks, are looking forward to a summer vacation with their families in picturesque Phantom Lake, Wis. The Brewsters have rented Pinecrest, an age-blackened old house once the home of Dr. Hector Darby, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances seven years before. Eric's mother, Merrill, has a bad feeling about the house, as well she should, but the rest of the family is insistent, so she goes along with the plan. Once at Pinecrest, Eric and friends discover a secret room in the carriage house, a room filled with deadly surgical instruments, medical files, books and artifacts relating to Dr. Darby's research into the minds of serial killers. The boys begin to hear strange voices and experience terrifying dreams. Or are the dreams real? It's more YA novel than adult, but Saul has been in the business long enough to know how to send shivers up the spines of readers of any age.
Customer Reviews
Loved it!
Great book! Very fast moving, good story line, and characters! I'm definitely reading more of his books!
He has written better, but this is a good book!
I admit it; I have read better books by John Saul, but this is still a good one. Suspense and a gothic atmosphere of spooky dread permeate this chilling tale of a family who decides to spend their summer vacation at Pinecrest, a quaint, secluded house in a quiet town. The mother senses something very wrong about the place, but she is outvoted by the rest of her family, so she decides to keep her suspicions to herself, feeling that her uneasiness could be the product of nothing more than her imagination. Eric and his friends become obsessed and fascinated with the objects they find hidden in a secret room. When they begin to experience frightening, morbid dreams associated with these macabre objects, they are convinced that they are only dreams. Soon, they will learn the horrifying truth, but will it happen in time to save their families... and maybe an entire town? Fueled by suspense and a gothic atmosphere of terror, the only thing this book suffers from is an essential lack of action that makes any well-written horror novel truly worth reading and a rushed climax. Still, it’s got enough of the right ingredients to make it an enjoyable horror story for any fan of the genre, and Saul’s efforts at creating a genuinely terrifying tale show in every chapter. I wouldn’t recommend this to EVERYONE who wants a good book, but horror fans will enjoy it, especially John Saul’s fans!
Awesome!
This book was an awesome read. It was scary and always kept you wondering what was next. This story would make a great movie!