NYT Authors October 2010 Reclusive collector Cutter Merlin is seldom seen in Key West—lately, not at all. Officer Liam Beckett visits Merlin's curious house & discovers the gentleman in his study. In his death grip: a volume of occult lore & a reliquary. His eyes are wide with fright, his mouth a horrified rictus where spiders now dwell. Kelsey Donovan returns to the old house to catalog her estranged grandfather's collection of artifacts & antiquities, vowing to see his treasures divested properly. But she cannot ignore the sense that she's being watched, the reports of malevolent black figures, the pervasive smell of death. Is the Merlin house haunted, even cursed? Liam knows well that some ghost stories are true & he swears to protect Kelsey. But there are forces at work for whom one more life is a pittance to pay for their deepest desire....