International Horror Guild Award - Finalist
Father Panic's Opera Macabre
First published 2001
Neil O'Netty, a successful young historical novelist, is enjoying a leisurely driving tour through the rugged countryside and ancient hill towns of eastern Italy, when he is forced to seek assistance at a remote farmhouse. There he meets the beautiful Marisa, and her elderly relatives. What starts out as a brief idyllic interlude in his journey soon blossoms into a fierce, all-consuming affair with Marisa. Marisa's defiant and deathless eroticism is the thread that leads Neil into the nightmarish center of the labyrinth and propels the story to its shocking and unforgettable conclusion.
- “In a Thomas Tessier story, tension rises like a frightful fever and then peaks at nightmare.”Publishers Weekly