Spider House

288 pp. Eugene Thurston jacket art. When eccentric Ezra Boonton retired from financial circles with a huge fortune and a reputation for shady dealings, he left behind him a score of crippled corporations, which his manipulations had bled to the bone, and the disparaging title of the "Spider of the Street."Seemingly a large portion of his wealth was spent on his new country estate, well fortified, and containing every safeguard against the many threats of personal violence his ruthless methods had resulted in. Steel doors, electric wiring, alarms, and personal bodyguards all protected the inhabitants of his home, yet through them stalked the Dark Angel in a series of visits that left tragedy in his wake.Captain Janos Catlin of the State Police found in this weird house with its air of impending horror circumstances foreign to even his wide experience in the solution of fantastic cases. That his presence was resented by even those who had summoned him and that every obstacle possible was raised by his oddly assorted companions still further complicated his already difficult position.Mr. Mason has reached a new level of deftness in his characterizations of old Ezra Boonton, wily, degenerate, and neurotic; Dr. Lawes, suave and professional; and Nurse Delray, exotic yet tempered with the world's hardness, and the reader will find these and other personalities drawn with the utmost vividness.