Lee Donne's family is gifted. Her mother has three doctorates, her father is an economics genius, and her grandfather is a world renowned Shakespearean scholar. Lee's own gift, if you could call it that, is an eidetic memory that seems to maintain a visual representation of everything she's ever seen. For the most part, this gift is useless; it certainly hasn't helped Lee in college, where she's just spent four years drifting from major to major, with no degree in sight. Without a job or prospects, Lee is relieved to be housesitting her grandfather's isolated Oregon home. But her stay soon becomes a nightmare when she is tormented by strange and menacing noises at night. Emboldened by a visit from her friend Casey, Lee finds that the source of these haunting sounds is an all-too-human force—a young and well-respected man. He knew that Lee's grandfather would be away, but what could he have been looking for? The search for answers takes Lee from the Pacific Northwest to the streets of New Orleans. Using her strange gift as she probes into her family's past, Lee uncovers secrets more far-reaching and sinister than she ever could imagine.
Author
Kate Wilhelm’s first short story, “The Pint-Sized Genie” was published in Fantastic Stories in 1956. Her first novel, MORE BITTER THAN DEATH, a mystery, was published in 1963. Over the span of her career, her writing has crossed over the genres of science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy and magical realism, psychological suspense, mimetic, comic, and family sagas, a multimedia stage production, and radio plays. She returned to writing mysteries in 1990 with the acclaimed Charlie Meiklejohn and Constance Leidl Mysteries and the Barbara Holloway series of legal thrillers. Wilhelm’s works have been adapted for television and movies in numerous countries; her novels and stories have been translated to more than a dozen languages. She has contributed to Quark, Orbit, Magazine of Fantasy and ScienceFiction, Locus, Amazing Stories, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Fantastic, Omni, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Redbook, and Cosmopolitan. Kate Wilhelm is the widow of acclaimed science fiction author and editor, Damon Knight (1922-2002), with whom she founded the Clarion Writers’ Workshop and the Milford Writers’ Conference, described in her 2005 non-fiction work, STORYTELLER. They lectured together at universities across three continents; Kate has continued to offer interviews, talks, and monthly workshops. Kate Wilhelm has received two Hugo awards, three Nebulas, as well as Jupiter, Locus, Spotted Owl, Prix Apollo, Kristen Lohman awards, among others. She was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2009, Kate was the recipient of one of the first Solstice Awards presented by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) in recognition of her contributions to the field of science fiction. Kate’s highly popular Barbara Holloway mysteries, set in Eugene, Oregon, opened with Death Qualified in 1990. Mirror, Mirror, released in 2017, is the series’ 14th novel.
