Listen, Please Listen — Naomi Hintze

There is no hiding place from terror.

Her name was as false as her age and marital status. A fictional identity assumed to prevent the horrors of the past from repeating themselves. A masquerade that kept Joanna safe for a while -- but couldn't protect her young daughter from the relentless assault of strange, destructive forces.

As a teen-ager, Jo St. John had been the helpless focal point for strange and terrifying events -- what the newspapers called the “poltergeist manifestations.” Stones had fallen on the house, dishes had flown from the shelves, spontaneous fires had broken out. Everyone, including her family, believed that Jo herself was possessed, responsible beyond her own will for these bizarre happenings. Rites of exorcism were performed to expel the demon and Jo was hounded and exploited to a terrible degree.

At the time, Listen, Please Listen takes place, years have passed since these events occurred. Jo has left home and grown up, and she believes now that she has finally achieved a safe and happy life for herself and her twelve-year-old daughter, Becca. The two of them live in a small New England town, sharing a Victorian house with a benevolent elderly couple. Jo has even fallen in love, though she fears the effect of her psychic past on the man she care about.

Then, without warning, new poltergeist events take place and Jo must face the possibility that her daughter, Becca, has inherited her own awful talent of attracting such phenomena. New cups fly through the air, chairs rock on their own, more stones drop. Has the poltergeist come back or is there another dark threat to the happiness of this small family?

The answer to this question is revealed as the novel builds to a tense and chilling climax.