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Product Description
In a career spanning more than twenty years, New York Times bestselling author John Saul has terrified us with his chilling, psychologically charged novels. Now, in The Right Hand of Evil, Saul plumbs the icy depths of darkness--and gives us his most frightening, compelling novel yet. Don't turn out the light. . . .
Just as their troubled marriage is reaching the breaking point, Ted and Janet Conway receive tragic news that unexpectedly gives them a chance to start again. After the lingering death of his estranged aunt, Ted inherits the Conway home in the small Louisiana town of St. Albans, an imposing structure that has been in the family for more than a century. With nothing to hold them in Shreveport, the Conways move with their teenage twins, Jared and Kim, and eighteen-month-old daughter, Molly, to the promise of a new beginning.
But the house has a life of its own.
Abandoned for the last forty years, surrounded by thick trees and a stifling sense of melancholy, the sprawling three-story Victorian house seems to swallow up the sunlight, along with people's lives. For deep within the cold cellar and etched into the very walls is a long, dark history of the Conway name--a grim bloodline poisoned by suicide, strange disappearances, voodoo rituals, and rumors of murder. But the Conways know nothing of the soul-shattering secrets that snake through generations of their family's past. They do not know that terror awaits them.
All that will change.
A child's haunting cries do not seem to be coming from Molly. The twins, who have always shared a special sympatico connection, now find that mental link abruptly severed. Now, Kim awakens with nightmare visions she prays are only imaginary. Now, as Ted throws his energies into renovating the house, Janet notices a difference in Jared--the once-outgoing teenager has become cold and hostile, full of rage and resentment. Is this a symptom of adolescence or something far more sinister?
The answer lies in a horrifying truth that, once revealed, will threaten to consume every living soul in its fiery wake. For with each generation of the Conway name comes a hellish day of reckoning.
A master of supernatural suspense, John Saul knows what transpires in the black folds of night--and who will be touched by The Right Hand of Evil.
Amazon.com Review
John Saul has been giving readers the jitters since the publication of Suffer the Children in 1977. His 22nd twisted tale, The Right Hand of Evil is another nerve shaker.
The Conway family is in deep financial trouble. Ted Conway would rather knock back bourbon than support his family, and Janet Conway's career as an artist is going nowhere. Happily, the three Conway children--toddler Molly and 15-year-old twins Jared and Kimberley--seem well adjusted. Of course happy children to not make for good horror material, so dark times are just around the corner. Ted receives an unexpected call from a Louisiana sanatorium, where his aged Aunt Cora is dying. Cora wants to convey a final message to her only surviving family members. She rasps out the ominous words, "I can see it. Stay away! Stay away from here!" Her words are futile--the financially strapped Ted moves his family into Cora's old house, a house deeded to them in a family trust. Young Kimberley instantly feels a dark presence in the dilapidated Victorian house: "Suddenly her skin was crawling, as if a large insect were creeping across her neck." Tragedy upon tragedy strikes the family. Kim's beloved cat disappears and is sacrificed in a black-magic ceremony; an evil presence takes over Jared's mind--transforming him into the most rotten of bad seeds; the wails of a dead infant fill Kim's head, driving her to the edge of insanity. The family has fallen victim to a centuries-old curse--a curse that threatens to wipe out the Conway name. Although there is nothing particularly original or earth shattering about this haunted-house story, The Right Hand of Evil is still a welcome piece of escapism. Read it at your peril. --Naomi Gesinger
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