From Edgar Award-finalist Jason Rekulak comes a wildly inventive spin on the supernatural thriller, for fans of Stranger Things and Riley Sager, about a woman working as a nanny for a young boy with strange and disturbing secrets.
Mallory Quinn is fresh out of rehab when she takes a job as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.
Mallory immediately loves it. She has her own living space, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.
Then, Teddy’s artwork becomes increasingly sinister, and his stick figures quickly evolve into lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to wonder if these are glimpses of a long-unsolved murder, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force.
Knowing just how crazy it all sounds, Mallory nevertheless sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy before it’s too late.
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Suspense fiction and mystery novels blending domestic tension, psychological twists, and retro nostalgia have earned widespread popularity among contemporary thriller readers. Author Jason Rekulak made a notable contribution to the genre with his bestselling mystery novel Hidden Pictures, which achieved national bestseller status and won a Goodreads Choice Award.
Before establishing his career as a fiction writer under his own name, Rekulak spent years working inside book publishing, where he gained extensive industry experience that helped shape his approach to narrative structure and storytelling.
Jason Rekulak was born and raised in New Jersey before moving to Pennsylvania. He spent many years working as the publisher of Quirk Books, an independent publishing house located in Philadelphia. During his tenure as an editor and publisher, he acquired and developed numerous high-profile book projects, including twelve New York Times bestsellers, while also writing books under pseudonyms.
Rekulak made his novelistic debut under his own name with The Impossible Fortress in 2017, which earned critical recognition as a finalist for the Edgar Award and was translated into twelve languages. Following his transition to full-time author, he continued to release suspense novels, including Hidden Pictures in 2022 and The Last One at the Wedding in 2024. He lives in West Philadelphia with his family and works on novel projects as well as film adaptations.
Rekulak's fiction spans multiple genres, combining elements of suburban thriller, paranormal horror, mystery, and nostalgic coming-of-age narratives. His stories frequently center on relatable characters placed in eerie or high-stakes circumstances, exploring themes of parental protective instincts, family secrets, moral compromise, and unexplainable phenomena.
Technically, his novels are noted for incorporating visual elements, art, or period-specific artifacts to deepen the reading experience. Whether utilizing unsettling children's sketches to advance a supernatural mystery or drawing upon 1980s computer culture and pop media, his writing balances fast-moving plotting with precise character development.
