The Birthing House (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780312624156)

A chilling ghost story that is also a tale of exquisite psychological suspense, The Birthing House marks the debut of a writer whose first novel is a terrifying tour de force.

Conrad and Joanna Harrison, a young couple from Los Angeles, attempt to save their marriage by leaving the pressures of the city to start anew in a quiet, rural setting. They buy a Victorian mansion that once served as a haven for unwed mothers, called a birthing house. One day when Joanna is away, the previous owner visits Conrad to bequeath a vital piece of the house's historic heritage, a photo album that he claims belongs to the house. Thumbing through the old, sepia-colored photographs of midwives and fearful, unhappily pregnant girls in their starched, nineteenth-century dresses, Conrad is suddenly chilled to the bone: staring back at him with a countenance of hatred and rage is the image of his own wife....

Thus begins a story of possession, sexual obsession, and, ultimately, murder, as a centuries-old crime is reenacted in the present, turning Conrad and Joanna's American dream into a relentless nightmare.

Author: Christopher Ransom
ISBN-10: 0312624158
ISBN-13: 9780312624156
Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
Language: English
Published: 08/03/2010
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.63lbs
Size: 8.25h x 5.50w x 0.75d