Owen Crites has grown up in the shadow of the Montgomery summer estate and has always been in love with beautiful Jenna Montgomery, who arrives each summer to her family's summer home on Outerbridge Island, just off the New England coast.
Now, both of them teenagers, Owen -- the gardener's son -- begins to understand that Jenna is meant for a different life in adulthood than he's destined for -- and he knows that he must somehow keep her with him on the island until she no longer wants to leave.
Enter handsome and wealthy Jimmy McTeague, the young tennis star from Manhattan, heir to a sporting goods fortune. Jimmy's also come to spend the summer with the Montgomery family.
To Owen, this intruder is a rival for Jenna's love, but he soon discovers that Jimmy holds in a deep secret that could destroy him. Soon, a triangle of love, hate, and the darkest of human impulses emerges.
"Purity is a gripping, shocking story of love, turning 18 and murder…" -- Doubleshot Reviews.
"Douglas Clegg turns the screws dexterously in this sleek, multifaceted suspense story...in a vacation paradise saturated in alcohol, entitlement and hypocrisy..." - Publisher's Weekly.
Clegg writes gut-wrenchingly beautiful horror…painful adolescence, abuse, sociopathic alienation, and coming home - are all at play here, as are characters who play each other and themselves...for keeps."- Chizine.
Praise for Douglas Clegg's Fiction
"Clegg is the best horror writer of the post-Stephen King generation."
— Bentley Little, author of The Policy
"Clegg delivers!"
— John Saul, bestselling author of Faces of Fear and The Devil's Labyrinth.
"A master of the genre. Absolutely thrilling! Douglas Clegg is the future of dark fantasy."
— Sherrilyn Kenyon
New York Times bestselling author of the Dark-Hunters.
"Douglas Clegg has become the new star in horror fiction."
— Peter Straub
author of Lost Boy, Lost Girl and the New York Times Bestseller Black House (with Stephen King)
"Clegg's stories can chill the spine so effectively that the reader should keep paramedics on standby."
— Dean Koontz
"Clegg is one of the best!"
— Richard Laymon
"Douglas Clegg is a weaver of nightmares!"
— Robert R. McCammon
author of The Queen of Bedlam and Speaks The Nightbird.
Douglas Clegg is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of more than 30 books, including Goat Dance, Breeder, Neverland, and The Halloween Man. He lives in New England.