Nightshade [Abridged, Audiobook] [カセット]

すぐそこにある冷たい恐怖…ホラーサスペンスの帝王、本領発揮！夜ごと漂う妖艶な香り、それは悲劇のはじまり
痴呆のすすんだ祖母をひきとった日から、16歳の少年マットの生活は一変した。裕福な母の再婚相手も我が子同然にかわいがってくれ、幸せな日々だったのだが…。
「おまえの死んだ姉が帰ってくる」と騒いでは母をいじめる祖母、実母の横暴にじっと耐える母。なにかがおかしい。屋敷には妖艶な香りが漂い、誰かの気配が−−そんなさなかの狩猟中、マットはなぜか気を失う。気がつくとそこには額の真ん中を打ち抜かれた継父の死体が…。しかし、それはマットと一家を次々に襲う悲劇のほんの序章にすぎなかった。
ホラーサスペンスの大御所が描く日常に潜む身も凍るような恐怖。


--このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。

痴呆のすすんだ祖母を引き取った日から、16歳の少年マットの生活は一変した。裕福な母の再婚相手も我が子同然にかわいがってくれ、幸せな日々だったのだが…。「おまえの死んだ姉が帰ってくる」と騒いでは母をいじめる祖母、実母の横暴にじっと耐える母。なにかがおかしい。屋敷には妖艶な香りが漂い、誰かの気配が―。そんなさなか、狩猟中にマットはなぜか気を失う。気がつくとそこには額の真ん中を撃ち抜かれた継父の死体が…。しかしそれはマットと一家を次々に襲う悲劇のほんの序章にすぎなかった。ホラーサスペンスの大御所が描く、日常に潜む身も凍るような恐怖。 --このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。

There's no such thing as a happy family in John Saul's dark imagination. He made this chillingly clear in Suffer the Children and The Right Hand of Evil, and he deepens this impression in Nightshade, a perfectly macabre tale of a household ripped apart by malevolent forces.

Meet New Hampshire couple Bill and Joan Hapgood and their teenage son, Matt. They have a huge home, many friends, and the glow of Matt's glory as a high school football star. Life couldn't be sweeter, right? Wrong!

Trouble begins when Joan's mother, Emily, accidentally burns down her own house and moves in with the Hapgoods. Matt is terrified of his foul-tempered grandmother, who refers to him as "Joan's bastard." Emily's odd behavior reaches a fever pitch when she insists that the bedroom of her long-dead (and much-favored) elder daughter, Cynthia, be recreated, prom dress, dolls, and all. The household's normal warmth vanishes, "the sense of welcome and comfort was gone." Matt complains of strange, perverted dreams in which the staggeringly beautiful Cynthia visits him, leaving behind the pungent scent of her Nightshade perfume. Joan also feels the presence of her dead sister, and has painful flashbacks to a childhood best left forgotten. A murder and three disappearances befall the small town, Matt spirals into depression, and Joan loses her mind. Throw in child abuse, torture, and a wickedly irritable ghost, and we have one whopper of a nightmare. Nightshade contains gobs of gore, melodramatic (and occasionally bumbling) prose, and a deviant, twisted ending--John Saul's famous recipe for family disaster and reader delight. --Naomi Gesinger

Three cassettes, 5 hours 15 minutes

Life is nearly perfect for 15 year-old Matt Moore who lives with his mom, Joan, and supportive stepdad, Bill Hapgood, in rural New Hampshire-until his maternal grandmother, Emily Moore moves into their house. Emily is difficult to start with, she's deteriorating rapidly with Alzheimer's disease. But, it is Emily's odd request that the Hapgoods recreate the room of her elder, deceased daughter, Cynthia, that strains the family. Cynthia's pictures and possessions and even her perfume, come to dominate the lives of Matt and the Hapgoods.

As the family's world begins to deteriorate, Bill Hapgood is killed hunting. The circumstances around Bill's death seem to implicate Matt as his killer. It's Emily's accusation of Matt that finally sends the remaining family members into a hellish nightmare they could never have imagined, and from which they can only hope to survive.

"[SAUL] HAUNTS HIS SHADOWY REALM INGENIOUSLY AND PERSISTENTLY. . . . NIGHTSHADE MAY BE HIS MASTERPIECE."
--Providence Journal

John Saul's first novel, Suffer the Children, published in 1977, was an immediate million copy bestseller. He has since written such New York Times bestsellers as the Guardian, The Homing, The God Project, Nathaniel, Brainchild, Hellfire, The Unwanted, The Unloved, Creature, Sleepwalk, Second Child, Darkness, Shadows, Black Lightning, and The Blackstone Chronicles. Each is a spine-tingling tale of supernatural, technological or psychological terror. John Saul divides his time between Seattle, Washington and Maui, Hawaii.