The Crying Child, page 22
“You remember, Jo, I said to you once that these creatures couldn’t do any physical harm; all they could do was scare people. And a lot of the fear comes from ignorance. There’s a lot of nonsense talked about the reasons for this kind of disturbance—hauntings, if you want to use that word. But they all hinge on the same thing. When the lost treasure is discovered, or the murderer is brought to justice, or the truth is known—then the trouble stops. So that’s why I say our trouble is over and done with. It’s more like one of those old Greek tragedies than a mystery story, with a villain that’s got to be discovered and punished. There aren’t any villains in our story—not even Hezekiah, though he was as near to one as we can get. But even he was driven by the patterns of his time, and his station in life; he didn’t act that much worse than a lot of men, and in the end he got his punishment, no question of that. The boy? You can’t blame a poor creature like that for what his father unwittingly made of him. And the woman is the most tragic figure of them all.”
“Not so much a Greek tragedy,” Will said, “as one of those grim biblical stories of nemesis and doom. The sins of the fathers…I can’t get that verse out of my mind.”
“It’s not such a terrible verse,” Jed said. “If you think of it as a warning instead of a threat. It’s true, in more ways than we like to admit. But there are a lot of verses in that Book, Will, and there’s another one that sticks in my mind.”
“I know,” I said. “I know the one you mean. ‘You shall know the truth…’”
“‘And the truth shall make you free.’”
About the Author
ELIZABETH PETERS (writing as BARBARA MICHAELS) was born and brought up in Illinois and earned her Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago’s famed Oriental Institute. Peters was named Grand Master at the inaugural Anthony Awards in 1986, Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America at the Edgar® Awards in 1998, and given the Lifetime Achievement Award at Malice Domestic in 2003. She lives in an historic farmhouse in western Maryland.
You can visit her website at www.mpmbooks.com.
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Praise for Barbara Michaels
“Simply the best living writer of ghost stories and thrillers in this century!”
MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY
“Michaels has a fine downright way with the supernatural…Good firm style and many picturesque twists.”
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
“[She] is nothing less than a certified American treasure.”
JACKSON CLARION-LEDGER
“This author is ingenious.”
KIRKUS REVIEWS
“Michaels has a human touch that adds charm to the well-controlled twists and turns.”
VIRGINIAN PILOT
“Michaels is a specialist. When the séances get going and the ghosts walk (and talk), even nonbelievers take notice.”
NEW YORK TIMES
Books by Barbara Michaels
Other Worlds*
The Dancing Floor*
Stitches in Time*
Houses of Stone
Vanish with the Rose
Into the Darkness
Smoke and Mirrors*
Search the Shadows*
Shattered Silk*
Be Buried in the Rain*
The Grey Beginning*
Here I Stay*
Black Rainbow*
Someone in the House*
The Wizard’s Daughter*
The Walker in Shadows*
Wait for What Will Come*
Wings of the Falcon*
Patriot’s Dream*
The Sea King’s Daughter*
House of Many Shadows*
Witch
Greygallows*
The Crying Child*
The Dark on the
Other Side*
Prince of Darkness*
Ammie, Come Home*
Sons of the Wolf
The Master of Blacktower*
*Available from Harper
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE CRYING CHILD. Copyright © 1971 by Barbara Michaels. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition JULY 2007 ISBN: 9780061866609
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Barbara Michaels, The Crying Child
