Excerpt from "22 Beckett St.", due out this summer

Everyone always wondered what really was behind the door of 22 Beckett St. The reclusive family did not come out much. They did not attend town meetings or make friends with any of their neighbors. The two young girls who lived there didn’t go to school and their father was a factory worker, but kept mostly to himself. They didn’t have much money. This was known because 22 Beckett had been on the market for years before the strange family moved in. Due to its poor construction and slight slant, the property sold for a reasonably low price, and many townspeople were curious about who would reside in such a wretched, unwelcoming home. “Imagine raising two young children in a gloomy, old house like that!” Mrs. Omar would say every time she and her son passed its black, twisted gates on their way to church. Kenny would look up at the very top window and see the oldest girl staring out at him.