The Children of Midnight — David Hunter

Mayor Canterbury's three year old daughter is among the little girls in the small town of Vienna who have suddenly vanished without a trace. The only hint of their whereabouts is the mayor's son's impossible suspicion about one of two old ladies, appearing out of nowwhere. But the young lad is afraid to tell anyone what he believes, fearing that his parents might send him off to a mental institution. Out of desperation he solicits the help of renowned freethinker, Carlton Wyatt, whose openmindedness leads him to a truth that is as ungodly as it is unbelieveable. Before long a long retired actress, having been one of the first recipients of a radically new cosmetic treatment, makes an announcement that rocks the scientific community and spawns a maniacal lust in consumers all over the world. It also catapults the megalomaniacal owner of the cosmetic company to an un- precedented plateau of wealth and power. Dr. Wyatt mortgages his fame to denounce the insanely popular technology, knowing it to be a Trojan Horse, independent of the immediate evil it secretly sponsors. But even he is unaware of the unseen forces behind it whose objectives are even more unsavory than those of his first discovery.