A "chilling . . . stunning thriller" from the Edgar Award–winning author of Exercise in Terror (Booklist).

It is 1957, and Jean Kaiser is pretending to sleep. When her parents go to bed, she'll turn her radio on low, and groove to Elvis. But from her parents' room, she hears something strange—her mother calling her name in a choking, terrified voice so chilling that Jean assumes it can't be real, and wills herself to sleep. When she awakens in the morning, the nightmare has come true—a killer has slaughtered her parents in their bed.

More than two decades later, Jean has done her best to move past her childhood trauma, parlaying a degree in psychology into a position as the host of a radio call-in show. One night, an anonymous caller shakes her to the core when he brings up details that remind her of her parents' murder. When Jean and her daughter, Angie, get home, they find their pet parakeet crushed to death over Jean's bed. Her parents' killer has reemerged ready to tie up loose ends. The nightmare never ended, and now Jean and Angie must fight—or die.