About the Author

House of Reckoning is John Saul's thirty-sixth novel. His first novel, Suffer the Children, published in 1977, was an immediate million-copy bestseller. His other bestselling suspense novels include Faces of Fear, The Devil's Labyrinth, In the Dark of the Night, Perfect Nightmare, Black Creek Crossing, Midnight Voices, The Manhattan Hunt Club, Nightshade, The Right Hand of Evil, The Presence, Black Lightning, The Homing, and Guardian. He is also the author of the New York Times bestselling serial thriller The Blackstone Chronicles, initially published in six installments and now available in one complete volume. Saul divides his time between Seattle, Washington, and Hawaii.

Reviews

Set in Vermont, this supernatural thriller from bestseller Saul (Faces of Fear) updates but adds nothing new to a traditional story. Six months after 14-year-old Sarah Crane's mother dies from cancer, Sarah's father, Ed, accidentally kills a man in a fight. On top of that, a drunken Ed hits Sarah with his truck while he's behind the wheel. After Ed goes to prison for manslaughter, Sarah, whose leg was badly injured in the truck accident, is placed with a foster family. Mitch and Angie Garvey and their two teenage children treat Sarah like Cinderella, expecting her to serve meals and do all the chores. Meanwhile, word of Sarah's circumstances makes her an outcast at her new school. Only two people reach out to her: Bettina Philips, an art teacher labeled a witch, and fellow student Nick Dunnigan, who's also isolated by his peers and prone to scary visions. Needless to say, the mystical abilities Sarah discovers she possesses come in handy in turning the tables. (Oct.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Saul's (www.johnsaul.com) 36th novel-following Faces of Fear (2008), also available from Brilliance Audio-further justifies his reputation as one of the great masters of horror fiction. After her mother dies and her father is imprisoned for murder, 14-year-old Sarah Crane is shipped off to a Dickensian foster home. Her foster parents mistreat her, her new school is full of bullies, and her only two friends are a boy who hears voices and an art teacher widely thought to be a witch. Angela Dawe (Side Effects) skillfully narrates, but even her soft, precise voice cannot carry listeners over the slow spots. The novel's real strength is its end, rife with harrowing descriptions of some truly nail-biting scenes. Not one of Saul's best but guaranteed to please his fans. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/09.-Ed.]-Joseph L. Carlson, Vandenberg Air Force Base Lib., Lompoc, CA Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.

"The storytelling is . . . undeniably powerful as it brings to vivid life an adolescent's zero-sum view of moral realities."-Kirkus Reviews

"Scary . . . It is the house that is the real star of the story."-Lincoln Journal Star

"John Saul has the instincts of a natural storyteller."-People