Burnt Offerings (Valancourt 20th Century Classics)

Ben and Marian Rolfe are desperate to escape a stifling summer in their tiny Brooklyn apartment so when they get the chance to rent a mansion in upstate New York for the entire season for only $900 it's an offer that's too good to refuse. There's only one catch: behind a strange and intricately carved door in a distant wing of the house lives elderly Mrs. Allardyce and the Rolfes will be responsible for preparing her meals.<br><br>But Mrs. Allardyce never seems to emerge from her room and it soon becomes clear that something weird and terrifying is happening in the house. As the suspense builds towards a revelation of what really lies behind that locked door the Rolfes will discover that their cheap vacation rental comes at a terrible cost . . .<br><br>The basis for a classic 1976 film adaptation and an acknowledged influence on Stephen King's <i>The Shining</i> <i>Burnt Offerings</i> is one of the most original and scariest haunted house novels ever written. This edition the first in decades features a new introduction by award-winning author Stephen Graham Jones.<br><br>[N]ear brilliance . . . a disturbing tale . . . highly recommended. - Stephen King<br><br><i>Burnt Offerings</i> has no peer. Better than <i>Rosemary's Baby</i> <i>The Other</i> and <i>The Exorcist</i>. - <i>Hartford Courant</i><br><br>Insidiously frightening . . . It snares you early and draws you inexorably to one of the most nerve-shattering finales in years. - <i>Publishers Weekly</i><br><br>Terrifies even by daylight. - <i>New York Times</i>