17-year-old Channing Hollingsworth should be focused on retaking the SAT, working on college applications, and partying with friends. Instead, he’s thrust into a world of danger and violence when someone murders his mother.
And the killer doesn’t stop there. The killer stalks Channing and his friends and starts killing them one by one.
If Channing has any hope of escaping alive, he needs to figure out who’s targeting them—and why. If he doesn’t, the bodies will keep piling up, and his own will be the cherry on top.
But when playing amateur detective and probing into the killings, Channing stumbles into decades-old secrets involving his parents and his friends’ parents. No one is completely innocent, and nobody is safe.
Channing’s one rock in this unfolding nightmare is the “situationship” that’s developed between him and a supposedly-straight friend, Rhys Fitzpatrick. But as the killer narrows in, Channing knows it’s only a matter of time before both him and Rhys are the latest bodies stuffed in the morgue.
Anyone who grew up in the small town of Normal has heard of old Milholland Place. Crispin Galloway certainly has. He's lived next door to the haunted house for years.
It’s now 1997 and a new family is renting the creepy old house. Crispin isn't putting money on them sticking around for very long. Nobody who rents the Milholland Place ever does. He certainly has no intention of going over there himself. After all, he's got enough on his mind, what with having a sexual awakening and crushing on his best friend.
Unfortunately, his new neighbors are in the market for a babysitter to take care of their twin children, and Crispin needs money. The job seems easy enough, even though it means spending an evening at Spook Central, and the money is good. Crispin figures he can handle it.
But then, strange things start happening. Crispin hears noises he shouldn't. Odd messages are left for him. And there is a growing sense that someone—or something—is watching him. Is he merely the victim of a practical joke? Or are the stories about the old Milholland Place rooted in reality?
It's up to Crispin and his friends to discover the truth. Four meddling teenagers and their dog will have to band together to solve this mystery.
