The Night House(2023)

Neil SmithJo Nesbø

From the internationally best-selling author, a twisted, multi-layered, mind-bending spin on the classic horror novel

In the wake of his parents’ tragic deaths in a house fire, fourteen-year-old Richard has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote, insular town of Ballantyne, where he quickly earns a reputation as an outcast. When a classmate named Tom goes missing, everyone suspects that the angry new boy is responsible for his disappearance. And no one believes Richard when he says the telephone booth out by the edge of the woods sucked Tom into the receiver like something out of a horror movie. No one, that is, except Karen, a beguiling fellow outsider who encourages Richard to pursue clues the police refuse to investigate. He eventually traces the number that Tom prank-called from the phone booth to an abandoned house in the Black Mirror Wood. There he catches a glimpse of a terrifying face in the window. And then the voices begin to whisper in his ear: You know who I am. She’s going to burn. The one you love is going to burn. There’s not a thing you can do about it.

When another classmate disappears, Richard must find a way to prove his innocence—and preserve his sanity—as he grapples with the dark magic that is possessing Ballantyne and threatening to destroy him.

Then again, Richard may not be the most reliable narrator of his own story . . .