I got this softcover from an online seller after listening to the book on audiobook. It's a creepy tale that opens with a flashback to two young brothers, living in an orphan's home, playing hide and seek - when a simple prank on an annoying sibling ends in tragedy.

Jump to the modern day, when one of the brothers, Daniel, wakes from a nightmare to another trauma-induced migraine. He's a professor of art at the local university, and has a wife and two kids - plus dog - so, basically, living the dream. If it weren't for his memories and those awful headaches... But when a weird painting turns up among the latest batch of acquisitions, he finds himself intrigued by it - all the more so when it seems to be changing from one viewing to the next. His attempts to find out where it came from lead him into his own past, while other revelations threaten his happy home...

Given that Daniel turns out to have been cheating on his wife with one of his students, it's easy to think that he deserves some of the nightmares he's encountering - and when the student shows that she's something of a psycho stalker herself, it would seem to be karmic justice, except that she targets his family and not just him. So there are real-world scares here in addition to that exceedingly-creepy painting - and the Things that begin to appear in the shadows...

There are twists and turns here, some of which I began to guess early on, and others that were only revealed late in the story. I found it an effective chiller, if a bit lacking in sympathetic protagonists, though given what happens to most of the characters perhaps it's best not to get too attached {wry grin}.

I left this book in the Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

*** Released for the 2022 One Word Title challenge. ***