The Piper

April 1, 2013
Horror fans will best appreciate this solid paranormal thriller from Shamus Award–winner Hightower (Satan’s Lambs). Recently divorced Olivia James is preparing to leave California with her eight-year-old daughter, Teddy, for her hometown of Knoxville, Tenn., when she receives a phone call—from her brother, Chris, who has just died. Chris, who says he “had to pay the piper,” warns Olivia that the “Mister Man”— their childhood name for the bogeyman who carried off their sister, Emily, 25 years earlier—is after her. Once Olivia and Teddy are settled in their new home, a “somebody” Teddy calls Duncan Lee starts to spook the girl amid such mysterious manifestations as inexplicably falling boxes and ceiling plaster. Olivia gets help from a visiting friend, her ex-husband, and her former cop boyfriend, but that’s not enough to prevent things from turning deadly. Will Olivia be able to save Teddy from an evil entity named Decan Ludde? Few will be surprised by the upbeat outcome.

April 15, 2013
A mother with a troubled family past flees her ruined marriage to a peripatetic manager only to realize that you can't go home again, especially if you're sharing your home with a truly malignant ghost. Christopher James has been dead for nine weeks, but that doesn't stop him from phoning his sister Olivia and warning her: "I had to pay the piper....Don't let him...after you." Olivia knows instantly that the piper is the nameless malefactor who carried off her sister Emily 25 years ago. Does Chris' call indicate that he fell victim to the same predator and that Olivia may be next? Now that she's moved herself and her 8-year-old daughter, Teddy, from LA back to her family home in Knoxville, she certainly has put herself in the piper's way. Teddy gets texts and hears menacing predictions from a voice she reluctantly identifies as that of Duncan Lee, aka Decan Lude, the Pied Piper of Hamelin. After Chris' widow, Charlotte, begs Olivia to move out of a house she's convinced is haunted, a blowup between the two women leaves Olivia feeling acutely isolated. It does no good to reach out for help, since anyone who tries to reassure her or stand between her and the piper ends up dead. When Teddy vanishes as suddenly and completely as Emily, Olivia is forced to decide what value she places on her child's life and whether she's willing to pay the piper to bring her back safely. Hightower takes a break from her three series characters (Fortunes of the Dead, 2003, etc.) for a stand-alone nightmare that will keep you awake till the last page and maybe even afterward.

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March 15, 2013
The night before returning to her hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee, Olivia James receives a disturbing phone call from her brother Chrisnine weeks after his death. He tells her that he has paid the piper and warns her about the Mister Man. Once in Knoxville, Olivia and her daughter, Teddy, settle into Olivia's childhood home. However, strange events begin to occur, and Teddy fears being in the house. She claims a ghost named Duncan Lee is threatening her. Olivia doesn't believe Teddy at first, but when Olivia's best friend, Amelia, drowns in the bathtub and Teddy disappears, Olivia, forced to accept that a malevolent spirit may be at large, turns to the local medium for help. Fast pacing, a strong and sympathetic main character, and a genuinely frightening supernatural being keep the pages turning in this ghostly thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)