Mr. X

Mr. X
Peter Straub

The award-winning supernatural thriller from the acclaimed author of Ghost Story, Koko, The Throat and The Talisman.Every year on his birthday, Ned Dunstan has a paralysing seizure in which he is forced to witness scenes of ruthless slaughter perpetrated by a mysterious figure in black whom he calls Mr X. Now, with his birthday fast approaching, Ned has been drawn back to his home town of Edgerton, Illinois, by a premonition that his mother is dying. On her deathbed, she imparts to him the name of his long-absent father and warns him that he is in grave danger. Despite her foreboding, he embarks on a search through Edgerton’s past for the truth behind his own identity and that of his entirely fantastic family. But when Ned becomes the lead suspect in three violent deaths, he begins to realise that he is not the only one who has come home…

PETER STRAUB

Mr X

Copyright (#ulink_248ff2a4-5bee-5416-b56a-1c752ceaf347)

This novel is entirely a work of fiction.

The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are

the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to

actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is

entirely coincidental.

HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by

HarperCollinsPublishers 2000

First published in the USA by

Random House, Inc. 1999

Copyright © Peter Straub 1999

The Author asserts the moral right to

be identified as the author of this work

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN: 9780002261425

Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2002 ISBN: 9780007387977

Version: 2016-08-10

Dedication (#u22870930-c2c2-5039-80ba-b1b0e6f1436a)

For my brothers, John and Gordon Straub

Epigraph (#u22870930-c2c2-5039-80ba-b1b0e6f1436a)

I could not weigh myself – Myself –

My size felt small – to me – I read your Chapter in the Atlantic – and experienced honor for you – I was sure you would not reject a confiding question –

Is this – Sir – what you asked me to tell you?

E—Dickinson

Emily Dickinson,

letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson,

April 25, 1862

Contents

Cover (#ufa446908-77bc-53d5-ba34-e0f224d92917)

Title Page (#u919b078a-2ce3-562e-8297-b8c4bca6ad12)

Copyright (#u404e68fa-5456-5bdb-a16c-44702430bcb9)

Dedication (#ubb981c66-76e9-596c-a9a2-b90474948b2c)

Epigraph (#uad75af6a-ceab-5135-9bd7-891f126670be)

1 How I Came Home, and Why (#u26e6f262-728e-5940-b071-a2057168e9d9)

1 (#u87bfcad2-e1ec-5fcc-bbc6-e591e68a0501)

2 Mr X (#ub80c4360-4346-5add-9574-b79be87e5efc)

3 (#uabcc9638-2c71-5c27-a258-036cb4e46980)

4 (#u3e633390-415b-53d0-b5f8-bbe95ae29946)

5 (#u44c969a8-7132-54b2-8a9d-26179d36fac5)

6 (#u94d7170e-a407-5028-a365-74b3685ca39e)

7 (#ub2722855-c7d0-5fbe-b36f-23673618d6c5)

8 Mr X (#u9f712f6f-ae81-54da-bbb1-19ef7599b75e)

9 (#ub5dc2fed-96d6-575d-b805-f7b614d84eaf)

10 (#ue9df5861-477a-5c44-abd1-263a41c4ce97)