Now You See It . . .

Richard Matheson

Jan 2014 · RosettaBooks

About this ebook

The author of I Am Legend transforms a lonely mansion into a madhouse where a group must face grisly tricks, shocking twists, and the mind of a killer.

In Now You See It, the prolific master of suspense and horror delivers a knock-out tale the likes of which have not been seen since Henry Clouzot’s devilish thriller Diabolique.

Some years ago, the Great Delacorte, a famed stage magician, came down with a stroke that left him in a vegetative state, able to move only his eyes. The entire action of the novel is witnessed through these eyes as Delacorte sits in the Magic Room of his country estate, a room custom-tailored to display stage illusions. Delacorte’s son, Max, has taken his name and place as an illusionist in every effort to replace his father. Max is supported by his wife Cassandra and her amazingly identical lookalike younger brother Brian. But for the past year, Cassandra has been poisoning Max’s food with arsenic and a sleeping pill. She wants the act all for herself—but Max has his own ideas, and his revenge is the big dish that Matheson sets before us in this dazzler that offers top-flight fun!

Praise for Now You See It

 

“One of his strongest efforts…. We’re all a lot richer to have Richard Matheson among us.”―Dean Koontz

 

“A fascinating variation on the locked-room mystery…with more hairpin turns than a mountain road. Now You See It…is absorbing.”―The Washington Post Book World

 

“There are as many twists and turns as a medieval catacomb in one of the most fun novels of the year.”―Rocky Mountain News

 

“Matheson’s prose is extremely smooth and the pacing frantic.”―The Philadelphia Inquirer

Ratings and reviews

One of the greatest novels I have ever read. Riveting to the very end. So glad I picked this up.

About the author

Richard Matheson (1926–2013) was a prolific speculative fiction author and screenwriter who wrote novels, short stories, movie screenplays, and scripts for television. He is perhaps best known for I Am Legend, a novel that was translated to the silver screen twice-once starring Charlton Heston, and once starring Will Smith. His screenplay The Incredible Shrinking Man, based on a prior novel, won the Hugo Award in 1958. Several other novels of Matheson's have been adapted to film, including What Dreams May Come, A Stir of Echoes, Duel, and Hell House. The movie version of Duel, based on a Matheson short story of the same name, was directed by Steven Spielberg. He is also known for writing dozens of episodes for The Twilight Zone, including the iconic "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," and several popular Star Trek episodes, including "The Enemy Within." In addition to the Hugo Award, Richard Matheson was the recipient of the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement (1984) and an Edgar Award for a teleplay written for The Night Stalker. He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2010.