MR. X - Softcover

Straub, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006513751 ISBN 13: 9780006513759

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2011

Synopsis

The award-winning new supernatural thriller from the acclaimed author of Ghost Story, Koko, The Throat and The Talisman.

Every year on his birthday, Ned Dunstan has a paralysing seizure in which he is forced to witness scenes of ruthless slaughter perpetrated by a mysterious figure in black whom he calls Mr X. Now, with his birthday fast approaching, Ned has been drawn back to his home town of Edgerton, Illinois, by a premonition that his mother is dying. On her deathbed, she imparts to him the name of his long-absent father and warns him that he is in grave danger. Despite her foreboding, he embarks on a search through Edgerton’s past for the truth behind his own identity and that of his entirely fantastic family. But when Ned becomes the lead suspect in three violent deaths, he begins to realize that he is not the only one who has come home...

About this title

Review:

Ned Dunstan's shadow has always been up-front:"You won't even be able to go out by yourself at night for another six or seven years. When do we have our first cigarette? Our first drink? When do we get to have actual sex?...I want darkness, I want night". "Without me, you can't get them at all", replies Ned. Coming home years later Ned begins to uncover the strange history of Edgerton, and the even stranger secrets of his bizarre family. Meanwhile Mr X, bad novelist, crimelord, seducer, serial-killer, self-appointed harbinger of the apocalypse of HP Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror, plans one very special murder before bringing the Cuthulu mythos to earth. Witty, shocking, beautifully written and completely absorbing, Mr X is an intricately plotted puzzle-box of sex, death, music, teleportation, and eccentric aunts.

With a large red X on the jet black cover the marketing department are targeting X Files fans and Peter Straub's book is certainly inventively weird enough to appeal to followers of foxy scullyduggery; the author penned such modern horror classics as Ghost Story and Shadowland while the FBI duo were still in grade school. There is a subtle homage to Stephen King's The Dark Half--the two writers collaborated on The Talisman--while aficionados of Christopher Priest's ingenious contortions of reality, particularly The Prestige, will be intrigued by this mystery. If you are looking for page-turning horror novel that's not afraid to have some post-modern fun stretching its genre to the limits, vote for Mr X. --Gary S. Dalkin

Review:

‘Mr X marks Straub’s triumphant return to the tale of the paranormal and the supernatural... When Peter Straub turns on all his jets, no one in the scream factory can equal him.’ STEPHEN KING

‘Straub returns with panache to the supernatural which he has made so much his own. It’s a must for every horror aficionado, but also recommended for anyone who enjoys a meaty, meandering whodunit.’ Daily Express

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0006513751
• ISBN 13: 9780006513759
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 640