Scarlet Widow

by Graham Masterton

Overview

They said the killings were the word of Satan. But Beatrice Scarlet, the apothecary's daughter, detects the hands of men. New Hampshire, 1756: the god-fearing farmers of Sutton are suffering divine punishment for unknown sins. Crops fail, cows die, and fish are poisoned by their water. Six pigs, slaughtered in their sty, bear the mark of the devils in their mouths. But to Beatrice Scarlet, the apothecary's daughter, the truth is much more chilling. Somewhere in this idyllic hamlet, a killer is hiding in plain sight. And if Beatrice does not unmask him soon, he'll be coming for her next.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781784976293
Publisher:	Head of Zeus
Publication date:	09/28/2016
Series:	Beatrice Scarlet Series , #1
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Graham Masterton was a bestselling horror writer who has now turned his talent to crimewriting. He is also the author of the bestselling Katie Maguire series, set in Cork, Ireland.

Editorial Reviews

07/25/2016
Set in the 1750s, this middling series launch from Edgar-finalist Masterton (Trauma) has some clever touches, but the whole is less than the sum of its parts. After a slow start, apothecary Beatrice Scarlet leaves England for New Hampshire with her new minister husband, Francis, only to find that the community he’s serving has been plagued by a series of baffling deaths. First, five pigs are found dead, with no obvious cause; broken pieces of mirrors placed on the animals’ tongues suggest a Satanic ceremony, according to Francis. Fears of witchcraft escalate when the killer moves on to claim multiple human lives, including those of three enslaved African men, who are burned to death and hung from a barn’s rafters, and a white man, whose body is dissolved in vitriol. Beatrice is sure there’s a rational explanation for the killings, despite the discovery of cloven hoofprints, which her neighbors believe were made by the devil himself. The means by which she identifies the killer may disappoint some readers. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"One of the most original and frightening storytellers of our time." —Peter James, author, Dead Man's Footsteps

"One of the few true masters." —James Herbert, author, Ash

"Graham Masterton is a natural storyteller with a unique gift for turning the mundane into the into the terrifyingly real." —New York Journal of Books

"Excellent entertainment, with an explosive finale worthy of grand opera." —Irish Independent on Buried

"Beatrice is a fully developed character who will be fascinating to watch solve mysteries through the course of the series."  —Booklist

From the Publisher