The Murder Artist - Softcover

Case, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0434012033 ISBN 13: 9780434012039

Publisher: Random House, 2004

Synopsis

There's nothing in the glorious summer day to suggest anything even remotely sinister. In fact, Alex Callahan, a news correspondent, surprises himself by enjoying the Renaissance Faire that his six-year-old twins, Kevin and Sean, have dragged him to. The boys are delighted by the jugglers and magicians, jesters and food mongers dressed in full Elizabethan costume. But it's the joust that the boys have really been waiting to see. Alex sits in the amphitheatre, watching the joust while keeping half an eye on the twins, who have clamoured to join the children assembled to cheer on the Green Knight. After watching the Green Knight despatch the Black Knight, he turns to see how the boys have enjoyed the joust, but at first he can't see them. And then: he really can't see them at all. The perfect day has turned into to a nightmare. There's no sign of Sean and Kevin, and eventually the police arrive. They're initially suspicious of Alex - after all, it's common knowledge that most children are abducted by their fathers - but no one can explain the small origami figure he finds after he returns to his empty house. Or the bowl of water that has been left on the top shelf of the wardrobe. Or

About this title

From the Inside Flap

The bestselling author of The Genesis Code and The Eighth Day now strikes his most harrowing chord, with a chilling novel that pushes suspense to nearly inhuman limits.

As a television news correspondent, Alex Callahan has traveled to some of the most dangerous corners of the globe, covering famine, plague, and war. He's seen more than his share of blood and death, and knows what it means to be afraid. But what he's never known is the terror that grabs him when, on a tranquil summer afternoon, he ceases to be an observer of the dark side and, to his shock, becomes enmeshed in it.

Separated from his wife, and struggling not to become a stranger to his six-year-old twin sons, Alex is logging some all-too-rare quality time with the boys, when they vanish without a trace amid the hurly-burly of a countryside Renaissance Fair.

Then the phone call comes. A chilling silence; slow, steady breathing; and the familiar, plaintive voice of a child–"Daddy?"–complete the nightmare . . . and set in motion a juggernaut of frenzy and agony.

The longer the police search, exhausting leads without success, the deeper Alex's certainty grows that time is running out. And when, at last, telltale signs reveal a hidden pattern of bizarre and ghoulish abductions, Alex vows to use his own relentless investigative skills to rescue his children from the shadowy figure dubbed The Piper.

Whoever this elusive stranger is, the profile that slowly emerges–from previous crimes involving twins, from the zealously secret world of professional magicians, and from the eerie culture of voodoo–suggests that The Piper is a predator unlike any other. A twisted soul hell-bent on fulfilling an unspeakably dark dream. A fiend with a terrifying true calling. What Alex Callahan is closing in on is a monster with a mission.

About the Author

John Case is the author of the international bestseller The Genesis Code and the novels of The First Horseman, Trance State and The Eighth Day. He lives in Northern Virginia.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0434012033
• ISBN 13: 9780434012039
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448