If You Could See Me Now

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Story—the terrifying, “electrifying” novel (Stephen King) about a man who flees the wreckage of his life to face the ghosts of his past, only to encounter a sinister force, ready to kill.  One summer night in 1955, a boy and his cousin plunge naked into the moonlit waters of a rural quarry. Only one of them emerges.   Just as he had promised he would on that fateful night two decades earlier, Miles Teagarden—now divorced and a struggling writer—returns to his family home in Arden, Wisconsin. But the landscape he once knew so well has turned eerie and threatening. In the small town, his erstwhile friends and rivals, even his blood relatives, view him with suspicion. Their paranoia seems justified when another beautiful blonde teenage girl goes missing—much as his cousin Alison did all those years ago. Miles feels a dark force is at work, gathering strength. As the anniversary of the tragic night approaches, he begins to fear that Alison will find a way to make their date . . .

The New York Times

“Suspenseful.”

Stephen King

“An electrifying finish: During the last forty pages my hands were as good as nailed to the book.”

Entertainment Weekly

“Straub is terrifyingly accomplished in the art of horror.”

Lawrence Block

“Peter Straub is a national treasure.”

The New York Times

“You expect the horrifying in the fiction of Peter Straub . . . and you get it.”

USA Today

“More than a good storyteller with a talent for scaring readers. He’s a writer who transcends his genre.”

The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

“[Straub] is a master at blurring the supernatural, the real-world-scary, and the monsters in your psyche.”

Cosmopolitan

“Not since Edgar Allan Poe has an author taken such liberties with his readers’ nerves.”

Salon

“Straub’s literary specialty . . . is not dreams but nightmares. . . . He’s particularly adept at the kind of creepy psychological yarn pioneered by Henry James and modernized by Shirley Jackson.”

People

“Straub is the master of subtle, smoldering dread.”

Tor.com

“Peter Straub is one of his generation’s best storytellers. . . . [Stephen] King goes for your jugular; Straub goes for your brain.”

From the Inside Flap

ight, a boy and his beautiful cousin plunge naked into the moonlit waters of a rural quarry. Twenty years later, the boy, now grown, flees the wreckage of his life and returns to Arden, Wisconsin, in search of everything he has lost. But for Miles Teagarden, the landscape he had known so well has turned eerie and threatening. And the love he shared has become very, very deadly . . .

From the Back Cover

"ELECTRIFYING."--STEPHEN KING"COMPULSIVE READING . . . MARVELOUS ATMOSPHERE, SUSPENSE, AND A TRULY GRAND GUIGNOL ENDING."--DOROTHY EDEN Author of Sleep in the Woods"STRAUB IS TERRIFYINGLY ACCOMPLISHED IN THE ART OF HORROR."--Entertainment Weekly"A FINE STORYTELLER."--The Washington Post

About the Author

Peter Straub is one of the bestselling writers of horror and thriller fiction. His work has won numerous awards, and he is known for his highly literate style. Thomas Tessier was educated in the United States and at University College, Dublin. He has published several novels of suspense and the supernatural. The Nightwalker was his second novel. He lives in Connecticut.

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