In its investigation of a dark ritual that casts a decades-long shadow, A DARK MATTER makes you question all you thought you knew about horror and about literature. Peter Straub may well be the most important voice in suspense fiction today.' - Lincoln Child 'American master Peter Straub takes the sweep of our freaky history over the past forty years, subjects it to all the elegant gifts of madness and arts of haunting of which he is the wicked king, and finds himself in possession of a masterpiece.' - Michael Chabon, author ofThe Yiddish Policemen's UnionandManhood for Amateurs 's dazzling a literary performance as anything Straub has ever written.' -Booklist 'I've been reading Peter Straub since I was a teenager, and his work is hardwired into my brain. A Dark Mattercontains echoes of all that has been great about Straub's previous work and builds upon it. This Rashomon-like tale is as spooky and frightening as anything he has written, but it's also an intense and moving celebration of love. Out of the darkness comes, ultimately, a surprising and haunting sense of joy.' -Dan Chaon, author ofAwait Your Reply 'A devastatingly good novel. Put this one high on your list.' -Stephen King 'PartRashomon, partThe Turn of the Screw. Straub builds otherworldly terror without ever losing touch with his attractive cast of youngsters, who age beautifully. It's the kind of book that's impossible to put down once it has been picked up. Praise for A DARK MATTER 'Peter Straub's new novel is a terrifying story of innocents-high school students in the turbulent sixties-who stumble into horrors far beyond their understanding.A Dark Matteris populated with vivid, sympathetic characters, and driven by terrors both human and supernatural. Unfolding through the individual stories of the fated group's members, A Dark Matter is an electric, chilling, and unpredictable novel that will satisfy Peter Straub's many ardent fans, and win him legions more. As each of the old friends tries to come to grips with the darkness of the past, they find themselves face-to-face with the evil triggered so many years earlier. Years later, one man attempts to understand what happened to his wife and to his friends by writing a book about this horrible night, and it's through this process that they begin to examine the unspeakable events that have bound them in ways they cannot fathom, but that have haunted every one of them through their lives. After he invites his most fervent followers to attend a secret ritual in a local meadow, the only thing that remains is a gruesomely dismembered body-and the shattered souls of all who were present. The charismatic and cunning Spenser Mallon is a campus guru in the 1960s, attracting the devotion and demanding sexual favors of his young acolytes.

The incomparable master of horror and suspense returns with a powerful, brilliantly terrifying novel that redefines the genre in original and unexpected ways.

A Dark Matter by Peter Straub