當夜曲響起,有個小男孩會來找你玩遊戲,
你就是不聽大人的警告,只想跟著他走進黑暗去……
最誘人的恐怖,你最好開著燈讀。
他喜歡自己在做的事,他要將占據自己身體的疾病分一點給別人,他很享受,他喜歡這麼做給他的權力感,能夠定人生死,和上帝一樣……
他警告我不要一個人到森林裡探險,入夜後不要在外頭遊蕩。因為有「東西」,比野狼更可怕的東西……
我對女兒說:「路意莎,怎麼了?」她說:「我不是路意莎,我是你的新女兒。」……
房子裡真的有東西。它沒有名字,沒有形體,它是一個由悲慘、傷害和絕望組成的東西,從地板上的灰塵、牆上緩緩剝落的壁紙、天花板的溼氣到壁板上的血跡,它無所不在,無所不是。
它靜靜等待。
繼《奪命旅人》、《失物之書》等暢銷佳作之後,約翰.康納利帶來了二十篇令人不寒而慄的靈異故事,從往日戀人、失蹤小孩、地底生物到食人惡魔,康納利探索人性最深沉的恐懼與陰暗,為傳統的鬼故事題材展開新的一頁:你看不到怪物,卻能體會到邪惡;聽不到腳步聲,卻傳來了地獄的迴聲;你以為看見魔鬼,卻感受到人性的寂寞與愛。
在最意想不到的轉折點,康納利以最精準的文字讓你毛骨悚然!
Bestselling author John Connolly's first collection of short fiction, Nocturnes, now features five additional stories -- never-before published for an American audience -- in a dark, daring, utterly haunting anthology of lost lovers and missing children, predatory demons, and vengeful ghosts. In "The New Daughter," a father comes to suspect that a burial mound on his land hides something very ancient, and very much alive; in "The Underbury Witches," two London detectives find themselves battling a particularly female evil in a town culled of its menfolk. And finally, private detective Charlie Parker returns in the long novella "The Reflecting Eye," in which the photograph of an unknown girl turns up in the mailbox of an abandoned house once occupied by an infamous killer. This discovery forces Parker to confront the possibility that the house is not as empty as it appears, and that something has been waiting in the darkness for its chance to kill again.
本書中譯版《夜曲》由麥田出版。
作者簡介
約翰.康納利(John Connolly)
西元一九六八年生於愛爾蘭都柏林市,經歷豐富,當過記者、酒保、服務生、倫敦哈洛德百貨公司的雜工、地方公務員等等。於愛爾蘭三一學院就讀英文系、都柏林市立大學主修新聞學,之後五年在愛爾蘭時報(The Irish Times)擔任自由記者。
一九九九年,康納利以《奪命旅人》出道。此書以追查殺死妻女真凶的退休警探派克為主角,令康納利成為夏姆斯獎(Shamus Award)首位非美籍得獎者,奠定其「愛爾蘭驚悚大師」的地位。二○○三年,以《蒼白冥途》獲得英國最佳犯罪小說獎Barry Award。
康納利才華洋溢,左手寫驚悚,右手跨領域、跨類型書寫。二○○六年出版的首部獨立作《失物之書》,內容融合童話、驚悚、成長故事、恐怖元素、寓言體例,可說是一部陰森美麗的成人童話,也為康納利的寫作生涯開啟了全新篇章。另一獨立作《魔鬼的名字》則為康納利贏得「史蒂芬.金接班人」之譽。
作者網站: www.johnconnollybooks.com/
John Connolly is the author of Every Dead Thing, Dark Hollow, The Killing Kind, The White Road, Bad Men, Nocturnes, and The Black Angel. He is a regular contributor to The Irish Times and lives in Dublin, Ireland. For more information, see his website at www.johnconnolly.co.uk.