Regina's Song - Softcover

David Eddings; Leigh Eddings

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007151764 ISBN 13: 9780007151769

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2002

Synopsis

'Make them stop,' she pleaded. 'The wolves are howling again. Please make them stop.' Then she suddenly started whispering, her lips very close to my ear - and she wasn't whispering in any language I could understand.

A brutal serial killer stalks the Seattle nights. Regina Greenleaf was one of the victims. Her beautiful twin sister, Renata, is deeply traumatized. She talks only rarely, and then always in twin-speak, the special language she and Regina made up long before they'd learned to speak English.

Mark, a college lecturer in English and the twins' friend, is the only person Renata will talk to. She agrees to attend his classes, and with the help of Mark's room-mates she seems to be coming to terms with her loss.

But the number of murders in Seattle rises, and Mark has some dreadful suspicions. If he says anything, it's guaranteed to send Renata back to the hospital. But if he doesn't, there may be blood on his conscience...

Part murder mystery, ghost story, and psychological thriller, Regina's Song masterfully fuses together elements that elicit our deepest, darkest fears...

About this title

Review

Regina and Renata are truly identical twins. They are so strikingly alike, even their mother can't tell them apart. Since their DNA is identical and their infant footprint records were lost by the hospital, no one can be sure which is which. This doesn't bother the twins. In fact, they're inseparable--until one of the young women is murdered. The other has no memory of the event, no idea who she is. In her near-total amnesia, she can remember only family friend Mark, who has always been a surrogate big brother to the twins. And Mark finds himself fearing that the effects of the trauma don't end with amnesia, for now a series of vicious murders terrorizes Seattle, accompanied by the howl of wolves....

A perhaps-supernatural thriller, Regina's Song is also a novella-length idea padded to 400 pages of novel. It may please young-adult readers, but it won't satisfy many experienced thriller fans. The plot twists aren't all that numerous or complex, and the cutesy dialogue in this turn-of-the-millennium novel seems more suited to the 1950s. --Cynthia Ward

From the Inside Flap

"A STORY OF MURDER AND REVENGE . . . Outstandingly well paced and tightly plotted, the novel also stands out in its handling of various psychological themes."
-"Booklist
Eerily attuned to one another, twins Regina and Renata are so identical that even their mother can't tell them apart. Then tragedy strikes: a vicious attack leaves one twin dead and the other so traumatized that she turns totally inward, incapable of telling anyone what happened or even who she is. She remains lost to the world, until the day Mark, a family friend, comes to visit-and the young woman utters her first intelligible word.
As she recovers, still with no memory of the past, her nightmares grow steadily more frightful, followed by wild fits of hysteria and dark mood swings. Her strange outbursts seem to coincide with the grisly serial murders that have begun plaguing Seattle. Could she be the killer? Determined to dispel his suspicion, Mark stakes out her home. The unholy sight he witnesses one night will haunt his soul for the rest of his life. . . .

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0007151764
• ISBN 13: 9780007151769
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400