Heart-Shaped Box

A pulse-pounding, terrifying rollercoaster ride of a supernatural thriller--the remarkable 2007 debut from the #1 New York Times bestselling author. "The shocks in Hill's riveting debut novel can be lurid and blood-drenched, or as quietly chilling as a casual phone call from an old, dead friend." -- Entertainment Weekly Sooner or later, the dead catch up . . . Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals, a used hangman's noose, a snuff film. Many of these objects were gifts from the black-clad fans who made his metal band a legend and made him rich. But not all. When his personal assistant told him there was a ghost for sale on the Internet, Jude knew he had to have it for his private collection. He didn't think twice. He should have. Jude has spent a lifetime evading ghosts--his abusive father; the bandmates he betrayed; Anna, the suicidal girl he loved and abandoned. But this spirit is different. This one means to chase him to the edge of sanity. His new acquisition--delivered to his doorstep in a black heart-shaped box--is the restless soul of Anna's vengeful stepdaddy. Craddock McDermott swore he would settle with Jude for ruining his daughter's life. Soon, everywhere Jude turns, Craddock is there: behind the bedroom door; in Jude's restored vintage Mustang; outside his window; on his widescreen TV. Waiting--with a gleaming razor blade on a chain dangling from one bony hand. If ever there was a case of buyer beware, this is it...

A pulse-pounding, terrifying rollercoaster ride of a supernatural thriller--the remarkable 2007 debut from the #1 New York Times bestselling author. "The shocks in Hill's riveting debut novel can be lurid and blood-drenched, or as quietly chilling as a casual phone call from an old, dead friend." -- Entertainment Weekly Sooner or later, the dead catch up . . . Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals, a used hangman's noose, a snuff film. Many of these objects were gifts from the black-clad fans who made his metal band a legend and made him rich. But not all. When his personal assistant told him there was a ghost for sale on the Internet, Jude knew he had to have it for his private collection. He didn't think twice. He should have. Jude has spent a lifetime evading ghosts--his abusive father; the bandmates he betrayed; Anna, the suicidal girl he loved and abandoned. But this spirit is different. This one means to chase him to the edge of sanity. His new acquisition--delivered to his doorstep in a black heart-shaped box--is the restless soul of Anna's vengeful stepdaddy. Craddock McDermott swore he would settle with Jude for ruining his daughter's life. Soon, everywhere Jude turns, Craddock is there: behind the bedroom door; in Jude's restored vintage Mustang; outside his window; on his widescreen TV. Waiting--with a gleaming razor blade on a chain dangling from one bony hand. If ever there was a case of buyer beware, this is it...

'Buy my stepfather's ghost' read the e-mail. So Jude did. He bought it, in the shape of the dead man's suit, delivered in a heart-shaped box, because he wanted it: because his fans ate up that kind of story. It was perfect for his collection: the genuine skulls and the bones, the real honest-to-God snuff movie, the occult books and all the rest of the paraphanalia that goes along with his kind of hard/goth rock. But the rest of his collection doesn't make the house feel cold. The bones don't make the dogs bark; the movie doesn't make Jude feel as if he's being watched. And none of the artefacts bring a vengeful old ghost with black scribbles over his eyes out of the shadows to chase Jude out of his home, and make him run for his life ...

'Buy my stepfather's ghost' read the e-mail. So Jude did. He bought it, in the shape of the dead man's suit, delivered in a heart-shaped box, because he wanted it: because his fans ate up that kind of story. It was perfect for his collection: the genuine skulls and the bones, the real honest-to-God snuff movie, the occult books and all the rest of the paraphanalia that goes along with his kind of hard/goth rock. But the rest of his collection doesn't make the house feel cold. The bones don't make the dogs bark; the movie doesn't make Jude feel as if he's being watched. And none of the artefacts bring a vengeful old ghost with black scribbles over his eyes out of the shadows to chase Jude out of his home, and make him run for his life ...