The Shape of Night

Prologue

Even now I still dream about Brodie s Watch, and the nightmare is always the same. I am standing in the gravel driveway and the house looms before me like a ghost ship adrift in the fog. Around my feet mist curls and slithers and it coats my skin in icy rime. I hear waves rolling in from the sea and crashing against the cliffs, and overhead, seagulls scream a warning to stay far, far away. I know that Death waits behind that front door, yet I do not retreat because the house is calling to me. Perhaps it will always call to me, its siren song compelling me to once again climb the steps to the porch, where the swing creaks back and forth. 

I open the door. 

Inside everything is wrong, all wrong. This is no longer the magnificent house I once lived in and loved. The massive carved banister is strangled by vines that twist like green serpents around the railing. The floor is carpeted by dead leaves which have blown in through shattered windows. I hear the slow tap, tap of rainwater dripping relentlessly from the ceiling, and I look up to see one solitary crystal pendant dangling from the skeletal chandelier. The walls, once painted cream and adorned with handsome crown molding, are now streaked with tentacles of mold. Long before Brodie s Watch was here, before the men who built it hauled up wood and stone, hammered beams to posts, this hill where it stands was a place of moss and forest. Now the forest is reclaiming its territory. Brodie s Watch is in retreat and the smell of decay hangs in the air. 

I hear the humming of flies somewhere above me, and as I start up the staircase the ominous sound grows louder. The once-sturdy steps I climbed every night sag and groan with my weight. The banister, once polished to satiny smoothness, bristles with thorns and vines. I reach the second-floor landing and a fly appears, buzzing as it circles and dive-bombs my head. Another fly moves in, and another, as I start down the hallway

New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen earned international acclaim for her first novel of suspense, Harvest (1996). She introduced Detective Jane Rizzoli in The Surgeon (2001) and Dr. Maura Isles in The Apprentice (2002) and has gone on to write numerous other titles in the celebrated Rizzoli & Isles series, most recently The Mephisto Club, The Keepsake, Ice Cold, The Silent Girl, Last to Die, Die Again, and I Know a Secret. Her latest standalone thrillers are Playing with Fire and The Shape of Night. A physician, Tess Gerritsen lives in Maine.

This is one of Gerritsen s best mysteries ever, with Ava Collette an unlikely heroine you ll never easily forget. Pick up a copy you might be left breathless and reeling, but you won t be disappointed. Lisa Jackson, #1 New York Times bestselling author
 
The Shape of Night is reading gold thought-provoking, loaded with suspense, with an ending to knock your socks off. Catherine Coulter, #1 New York Times bestselling author
 
Reminiscent of the best of du Maurier, this modern gothic is eerie, tantalizing, spine-tingling, and sensual. . . . An altogether delicious read. Sandra Brown, #1 New York Times bestselling author
 
This book reminds me why I love reading. Tess Gerritsen is a writer I look up to! J. R. Ward, #1 New York Times bestselling author 
 
A captivating and seductive tale exploring the dark embrace of grief and guilt, reminding us that nothing can haunt us as insidiously as our personal demons. Sylvia Day, #1 New York Times bestselling author

This supernatural thriller from bestseller Gerritsen ranks with the best of her crime fiction. . . . This magnetic haunted house story will keep readers riveted from the very first page. Publishers Weekly (starred review)

A spellbinding thriller. . . Gerritsen shifts a murder mystery into a Gothic thriller, replete with an unsteady widow's walk, secret alcove, strange smells, ominous sensations, and the ghost. The prologue echoes the dream of Manderley from Du Maurier s Rebecca. . . . This riveting Gothic thriller explores the limits of love, guilt, and punishment. Kirkus Reviews

Gerritsen creates an atmospheric scene with the mansion and the Maine coastline, and readers will almost feel the breeze and hear the waves crashing against the rocks. The main story of Ava, who may or may not be descending into madness, is compelling, and a clever twist or two steers the