John Saul's first novel, Suffer the Children, was published in 1977 to instant bestsellerdom. Punish the Sinners, Cry for the Strangers, Comes the Blind Fury, When the Wind Blows and The God Project, each a national bestseller, followed. Now, John Saul's trademark setting, a sleepy, isolated town where suddenly no one is safe, forms the background for this master storyteller's most chilling novel yet. John Saul lives in Bellevue, Washington, where he is at work on his next novel.

From the blood of the past, evil rises to seek undying vengeance...

Prairie Bend. Brilliant summers amid golden fields. Killing winters of razorlike cold. A peaceful, neighborly village, darkened by legends of death?

Who is Nathaniel?

For a hundred years, the people of Prairie Bend have whispered the name in wonder and fear. Some say he is simply a folk tale—a legend created to frighten children on cold winter nights. Some swear he is a terrifying spirit returned to avenge the past. And soon...very soon...some will come to believe that Nathaniel lives still—darkly, horrifyingly real.

Nathaniel.

For young Michael Hall, newly arrived in isolated Prairie Bend after having lost his father to a sudden tragic accident, Nathaniel is the voice that calls him across the prairie night...the voice that draws him into the shadowy depths of the old, crumbling barn where he has been forbidden to go...the voice—chanting, compelling—he will follow faithfully beyond the edge of terror...Nathaniel.