Creepy Sister — John T. Cullen

You can't run away from the past until the past is finished with you. Whatever you started--or what your creepy sister did under cover of darkness--will haunt you and pursue you anywhere in the world where you try to run and hide.

The past is never finished until it's finished--like your drug-addicted mother, your run-away father, and mom's string of nasty boyfriends. That's just for starters back in tiny Sharpsville, New York State.

That's what Anna Clair and Bella Clair discover when they reach adulthood and try to run away from family secrets, terrifying events, and sinister consequences in their teenage lives back home.

The two sisters separately have left their mother's dark, decaying little house in a tiny rural town. Anna and Bella, who never got along and maybe never really knew each other well, despite growing up under the same roof, have each separately moved across the country to sunny San Diego for a fresh start in life. They hardly ever call each other, but fate has scary ideas in store for them and will slam them together like never before.

Each thinks the other is a bit creepy and scary, to put it mildly. Now the past catches up again.

The old saying is: No matter where you go, there you are.

And so are the dreadful consequences of long-ago crimes and misdeeds, which have pursued Anna and Bella across a continent.

There is no peace, no rest, no saving grace. It's a fast tale, a roller coaster ride with our eyes bulging as we readers hang on for dear life, and discover one horrifying secret darker than the one before it.

And then a number of intriguing, beautiful new persons come into their lives. Courting Bella is the tall blond surfer Jack Kelley, a computer genius. Anna is mesmerized by the powerful, handsome young businessman Charles Spencer and his smoldering young sister, the darkly beautiful Delilah. Another is the strange, almost deranged, passionate young man named Fox, who keeps popping up in both Anna's and Bella's days bringing undercurrents of memory and unease.

Let's start reading, and know we will not be able to stop once we get sucked in.

Who is the creepy sister really? Each tells her story from her point of view, and sociopaths never see themselves as the guilty party. They can kill someone without blinking an eyelash, and blame it on the victim or on anyone other than themselves. Because they are so cold-blooded, they plan things to the last detail (and that means: the very last, final deadly detail).Warning: as with John T. Cullen's earlier noir thriller Terror in My Arms, keep a light on by the bedside, and the bed covers tightly up around your chin.

Don't worry if you must scream in the night.

Nobody will hear you.