Gwendy's magic feather /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Something evil has swept into the small western Maine town of Castle Rock on the heels of the latest winter storm. Sheriff Norris Ridgewick and his team are desperately searching for two missing girls, but time is running out to bring them home alive.

In Washington D.C., thirty-seven-year-old Gwendy Peterson couldn't be more different from the self-conscious teenaged girl who once spent a summer running up Castle Rock's Suicide Stairs. That same summer, she was entrustedƒ‚‚"ƒ‚‚€ƒ‚‚"or some might say cursedƒ‚‚"ƒ‚‚€ƒ‚‚"with the extraordinary button box by Richard Farris, the mysterious stranger in the black suit. The seductive and powerful box offered Gwendy small gifts in exchange for its care and feeding until Farris eventually returned, promising Gwendy she'd never see the box again.

One day, though, the button box shows up without warningƒ‚‚"ƒ‚‚€ƒ‚‚"and without Richard Farris to explain why, or what she's supposed to do with it. The mysterious reappearance of the box, along with the troubling disappearances in Castle Rock, leads Gwendy home again...where she just might be able to help rescue the missing girls and stop a madman before he does something ghastly.

From New York Times bestseller Richard Chizmar comes Gwendy's Magic Feather, a breathtaking novel that asks whether our lives are controlled by fate or the choices we makeƒ‚‚"ƒ‚‚€ƒ‚‚"and what price we might have to pay for those choices when we reach for the things we most desire. Prepare to return again to Stephen King's Castle Rock, the sleepy little town built on a bedrock of deep, dark secrets, which is about to awaken from its quiet slumber once more.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Chizmar returns to Castle Rock, Maine, after the 2017 novella Gwendy's Button Box, co-written with Stephen King, in this appealing chiller. Now 37 years old, Gwendy Peterson is shocked when the button box, a mysterious mahogany device that dispensed intricate gifts in exchange for acts of service and derailed Gwendy's childhood, reappears in her Washington, D.C., office in 1999. Gwendy has always wondered if the presence of the strange box during her formative years had something to do with the charmed life she's lived since, including a loving marriage, a stint as a bestselling author, and now a chance to shape her country as a congresswoman. During a holiday visit with her parents in Castle Rock, the return of her mother's cancer and the mysterious disappearances of several young local girls move Gwendy to give herself over once again to the dark temptation of using the button box, hoping that she can wield its power for good. Short, punchy chapters keep the pages turning, but the mystery of the missing girls lacks the urgency of the first book in the series. Still, the charming protagonist and thrill of temptation will enthrall fans and new readers alike. (Nov.)

Booklist Review

In the follow up to Gwendy's Button Box (with Stephen King, 2017), Chizmar sets the stage for Gwendy's alternative 1999 and gives some background on what happened to her as a child. Gwendy, now in her late thirties, is a congressperson representing her hometown while living in DC. When the Button Box spontaneously appears in her DC office on the eve of Christmas recess, Gwendy and the Box return home to a town in turmoil. Young girls are being kidnapped, her mom is recovering from cancer, and a paranoid Gwendy cannot stop looking over her shoulder. The story is told in classic supernatural thriller mode with all of the unsettling, creeping dread of horror but none of the gore. The compelling crime plot moves the story along quickly, but ultimately, this is the story of Gwendy finding her own power to shake the demons of the box. An easy choice to hand off to fans of King's Castle Rock mythos (who will love all of the easter eggs here), Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas books, and Charlaine Harris' supernatural series.--Becky Spratford Copyright 2010 Booklist

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Richard Chizmar is the founder and publisher of Cemetery Dance magazine and the Cemetery Dance Publications book imprint. He has edited more than thirty anthologies and his fiction has appeared in dozens of publications, including Ellery Queen¿s Mystery Magazine and The Year¿s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories. He has won two World Fantasy awards, four International Horror Guild awards, and the HWA¿s Board of Trustee¿s award. He co-authpred Gwendy's Button Box (2017) with Stephen King.

(Bowker Author Biography)