If You Could See Me Now - by Peter Straub (Paperback)

About the Book

"One summer night in 1955, a boy and his cousin plunge naked into the moonlit waters of a rural quarry. Only one of them emerges. Two decades later, Miles Teagarden, now divorced and a struggling writer, returns to his family home in Arden, Wisconsin, just as he had promised he would on that fateful night. But the landscape he once knew so well has turned eerie and threatening. His erstwhile friends and rivals in the small town, and even his blood relatives, view him with suspicion. And their paranoia seems justified when another beautiful, blonde teenage girl goes missing--much as his cousin Alison did all those years ago. Miles feels a sinister force is at work, gathering strength. And as the anniversary of their quarry swim approaches, he begins to fear that Alison will find a way to make their date"--

Book Synopsis

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Story--the terrifying, "electrifying" novel (Stephen King) about a man who flees the wreckage of his life to face the ghosts of his past, only to encounter a sinister force, ready to kill.

One summer night in 1955, a boy and his cousin plunge naked into the moonlit waters of a rural quarry. Only one of them emerges.

Just as he had promised he would on that fateful night two decades earlier, Miles Teagarden--now divorced and a struggling writer--returns to his family home in Arden, Wisconsin. But the landscape he once knew so well has turned eerie and threatening. In the small town, his erstwhile friends and rivals, even his blood relatives, view him with suspicion. Their paranoia seems justified when another beautiful blonde teenage girl goes missing--much as his cousin Alison did all those years ago. Miles feels a dark force is at work, gathering strength. As the anniversary of the tragic night approaches, he begins to fear that Alison will find a way to make their date . . .

Review Quotes

"Suspenseful." --The New York Times

"An electrifying finish: During the last forty pages my hands were as good as nailed to the book." --Stephen King

"Straub is terrifyingly accomplished in the art of horror." --Entertainment Weekly

"Peter Straub is a national treasure." --Lawrence Block

"You expect the horrifying in the fiction of Peter Straub . . . and you get it." --The New York Times

"More than a good storyteller with a talent for scaring readers. He's a writer who transcends his genre." --USA Today

"[Straub] is a master at blurring the supernatural, the real-world-scary, and the monsters in your psyche." --The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

"Not since Edgar Allan Poe has an author taken such liberties with his readers' nerves." --Cosmopolitan

"Straub's literary specialty . . . is not dreams but nightmares. . . . He's particularly adept at the kind of creepy psychological yarn pioneered by Henry James and modernized by Shirley Jackson." --Salon

"Straub is the master of subtle, smoldering dread." --People

"Peter Straub is one of his generation's best storytellers. . . . [Stephen] King goes for your jugular; Straub goes for your brain." --Tor.com

About the Author

PETER STRAUB is the New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen novels. In the Night Room and Lost Boy, Lost Girl are winners of the Bram Stoker Award, as is his collection 5 Stories. Straub is the editor of numerous anthologies, including the two-volume American Fantastic Tale from the Library of America. He died in 2022.