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The Madman's Tale: A Novel

The Madman's Tale: A Novel

The Madman's Tale: A Novel

The Madman's Tale: A Novel

by Katzenbach, John

  • Used
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Used-Very Good/Good
ISBN 10
0345464818
ISBN 13
9780345464811
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Seller rating:
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Item Price
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About This Item

Ballantine Books, Penguin Random House LLC, 2004-06-14. First Edition. hardcover. Used-Very Good/Good. 6.25 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches. pp448; Hardcopy with paper dust jacket in very good condition; DJ has 1" tear at bottom of spine; Clean pages; Tight Binding; Marine blue board with silver title on spine

Synopsis

It's been twenty years since Western State Hospital was closed down and the last of its inmates reintegrated into society. Francis Petrel was barely out of his teens when his family committed him to the asylum, after his erratic behavior culminated in a terrifying outburst. Now middle-aged, he leads an aimless, solitary life housed in a cheap apartment, periodically tended to by his sisters, and perpetually medicated to quiet the chorus of voices in his head. But a reunion on the grounds of the shuttered institution stirs something deep in Francis's troubled mind: dark memories he thought he had laid to rest, about the grisly events that led to Western State Hospital's demise. It begins in 1979, when twenty-one-year-old Petrel descends into the state-run purgatory of an overcrowded, understaffed Massachusetts mental hospital. Surrounded by inmates roaming the halls like drugged zombies and raving behind locked doors, well-meaning orderlies, jaded nurses, and patronizing doctors, Francis finds friendship with a motley assortment of fellow patients: a would-be Napoleon, a wise ex-firefighter, and a man obsessed with battling imagined devils. But there's nothing imaginary about the young nurse found sexually assaulted and brutally murdered late one night after lights-out.The police suspect an inmate, while patients whisper about visions of a white-shrouded "angel." But the striking and mysterious prosecuting attorney who arrives to investigate has her own chilling theory--about the grim, telltale "signature" left on the victim's body, a string of unsolved sex killings, and a very real devil who, by chance or design, has come to turn a madhouse into a slaughterhouse.Now, with the past creeping back to haunt his thoughts, and nothing but a pencil and the bare walls of his bleak apartment, Francis surrenders to the overwhelming need to tell the story of those nightmarish days. But because the crime was never solved, it's a story doomed to remain unfinished. Until, like Francis's long-buried recollections, the killer resurfaces . . . with a vengeance.A tour de force narrative journey through the eerily unpredictable mind of an utterly unusual hero, The Madman's Tale will keep even the most astute thriller reader uncertain, unnerved, and unable to resist the tantalizing twists and turns of this fiendishly suspenseful shadow show.From the Hardcover edition.

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Details

Bookseller
Paper Garden Books US (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #
PGB0002724
Title
The Madman's Tale: A Novel
Author
Katzenbach, John
Format/Binding
Hardcover
Book Condition
Used-Very Good
Jacket Condition
Good
Quantity Available
1
Edition
First Edition
ISBN 10
0345464818
ISBN 13
9780345464811
Publisher
Ballantine Books, Penguin Random House LLC
Place of Publication
New York
Date Published
2004-06-14
Size
6.25 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches
X weight
26 oz

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About the Seller

Paper Garden Books

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
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Severna Park, Maryland

About Paper Garden Books

Paper Garden Books is a family owned & managed online used bookstore created in 2017 by Doris & Steve Smith so that their only son, Jacob, could be gainfully and purposely employed. Jacob is severely impacted by autistic behavior, expressive & receptive speech delay, anxiety, sensory processing disorder & immune dysregulation since age 3. While Jacob has gotten older & taller, his love of all kinds of books has never changed. Books allow Jacob to explore his world without leaving the safety of his home.

Paper Garden Books - 'growing a future from the books of your past'.

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

First Edition
In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
Jacket
Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
Tight
Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
Spine
The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....

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