From Publishers Weekly
Kelman's ( Someone's Watching ) creepy suspense novel bears so many similarities to Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs that it's difficult not to make comparisons and find faults. The book opens as 11-year-old Abigail Eakins, weary of her mistreatment by a unnamed man whom her family trusts, runs away from her rural Vermont home. When she enters the yard of an ordinarily abandoned house, she notices its strangely lived-in appearance, turns to flee and is kidnapped. Enter parole officer Quinn Gallagher, a temperamental redhead assigned to blind parolee Eldon Weir. Weir has a rep for torturing and mutilating young girls that has never been proven in court, so he's under electronic surveillance in a specially designed house: the one where Abigail was abducted. As Abigail is subjected to a series of traps and illusions, it is unclear whether Weir is her captor. However, only Weir--speaking in riddles and innuendos--can illuminate his own criminal mind and lead Gallagher to the girl's rescue. Impetuous, hysterical women, brilliant, often twisted men and a step-family that seems to lack adequate concern for a missing child populate this chilling yet not particularly fresh crime story. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From the Publisher
The psychopath: Released from prison after losing his sight and incarcerated in a once-deserted home at the edge of the woods, he is under constant electronic surveillance, his every move monitored by closed-circuit cameras. There is no way he could possibly escape....The parole officer: One of the few people in town who knows what is locked inside the isolated house. Quinn Gallagher thought she was hardened to human evil until she looked into the sightless eyes of a child killer and felt a law officer's outrage--and a parent's nameless dread....The mother: Moved to Dove's Landing after the breakup of her first marriage hoping to start a new life with her daughter and her new husband--a hope that is devastated when eleven-year-old Abby disappears one ordinary afternoon.The nightmare: Now a killer may be on the lose on the streets of the small Vermont town...preying on the young and the innocent...and the horror is beginning all over again. And the only clues to his identity lie in the dark confessions of a madman...and in The House On The Hill.


From the Inside Flap
The psychopath: Released from prison after losing his sight and incarcerated in a once-deserted home at the edge of the woods, he is under constant electronic surveillance, his every move monitored by closed-circuit cameras.  There is no way he could possibly escape....



The parole officer: One of the few people in town who knows what is locked inside the isolated house.  Quinn Gallagher thought she was hardened to human evil until she looked into the sightless eyes of a child killer and felt a law officer's outrage--and a parent's nameless dread....



The mother: Moved to Dove's Landing after the breakup of her first marriage hoping to start a new life with her daughter and her new husband--a  hope that is devastated when eleven-year-old Abby disappears one ordinary afternoon.



The nightmare: Now a killer may be on the lose on the streets of the small Vermont town...preying on the young and the innocent...and the horror is beginning all over again.  And the only clues to his identity lie in the dark confessions of a madman...and in The House On The Hill.

ANNOTATION

An incredible novel of mystery and psychological suspense from the author of Someone's Watching. No one knows it in the peaceful little Vermont town, but a blind killer dwells on the hill. Under constant electronic surveillance, his every move watched by cameras, he cannot possibly escape. But what if a victim were to come to him? Higgins Clark. Original.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The psychopath: Released from prison after losing his sight and incarcerated in a once-deserted home at the edge of the woods, he is under constant electronic surveillance, his every move monitored by closed-circuit cameras. There is no way he could possibly escape....

The parole officer: One of the few people in town who knows what is locked inside the isolated house. Quinn Gallagher thought she was hardened to human evil until she looked into the sightless eyes of a child killer and felt a law officer's outrage—and a parent's nameless dread....

The mother: Moved to Dove's Landing after the breakup of her first marriage hoping to start a new life with her daughter and her new husband—a hope that is devastated when eleven-year-old Abby disappears one ordinary afternoon.

The nightmare: Now a killer may be on the lose on the streets of the small Vermont town...preying on the young and the innocent...and the horror is beginning all over again. And the only clues to his identity lie in the dark confessions of a madman...and in The House On The Hill.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Kelman's ( Someone's Watching ) creepy suspense novel bears so many similarities to Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs that it's difficult not to make comparisons and find faults. The book opens as 11-year-old Abigail Eakins, weary of her mistreatment by a unnamed man whom her family trusts, runs away from her rural Vermont home. When she enters the yard of an ordinarily abandoned house, she notices its strangely lived-in appearance, turns to flee and is kidnapped. Enter parole officer Quinn Gallagher, a temperamental redhead assigned to blind parolee Eldon Weir. Weir has a rep for torturing and mutilating young girls that has never been proven in court, so he's under electronic surveillance in a specially designed house: the one where Abigail was abducted. As Abigail is subjected to a series of traps and illusions, it is unclear whether Weir is her captor. However, only Weir--speaking in riddles and innuendos--can illuminate his own criminal mind and lead Gallagher to the girl's rescue. Impetuous, hysterical women, brilliant, often twisted men and a step-family that seems to lack adequate concern for a missing child populate this chilling yet not particularly fresh crime story. (July)

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING