The year is 1853. President-elect Franklin Pierce is traveling with his family to Washington, DC, when tragedy strikes. In an instant, their train runs off the rails, violently flinging passengers about the cabin. When the great iron machine finally comes to rest, the only casualty is the Pierces’ son, Bennie. The loss sends First Lady Jane Pierce into mourning, and casts Franklin’s presidency under a pall of sorrow and grief. As the Pierces...

"Forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Lily Dominick interviews a criminal suspect who claims that he is more than two hundred years old, personally inspired Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Bram Stoker's novels, and is Lily's father. To discover the truth Lily embarks on a journey that will threaten her career, her sanity, and ultimately her life"--

Pyper's weird, wonderful, audacious new novel begins simply enough: a man has died, and his family has gathered to hear the reading of his will. Much to the surprise of the man's widow and the couple's children, they all stand to inherit a sizable fortune, but there's one, rather odd condition. From this first small indication that The Homecoming will be no ordinary family drama, the story--walking a line between thriller and horror--descends, at...