An edition of The Madman's Tale (2004)

The Madman's Tale

A Novel

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  • 3.0 (1 rating) ·
  • 18 Want to read
  • 1 Currently reading
  • 2 Have read

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Last edited by ImportBot
August 28, 2020 | History
An edition of The Madman's Tale (2004)

The Madman's Tale

A Novel

  • 3.0 (1 rating) ·
  • 18 Want to read
  • 1 Currently reading
  • 2 Have read

It's been twenty years since Western State Hospital was closed down and the last of its inmates reintegrated into society. Francis Petrel was barely out of his teens when his family committed him to the asylum, after his erratic behavior culminated in a terrifying outburst. Now middle-aged, he leads an aimless, solitary life housed in a cheap apartment, periodically tended to by his sisters, and perpetually medicated to quiet the chorus of voices in his head. But a reunion on the grounds of the shuttered institution stirs something deep in Francis's troubled mind: dark memories he thought he had laid to rest, about the grisly events that led to Western State Hospital's demise. It begins in 1979, when twenty-one-year-old Petrel descends into the state-run purgatory of an overcrowded, understaffed Massachusetts mental hospital. Surrounded by inmates roaming the halls like drugged zombies and raving behind locked doors, well-meaning orderlies, jaded nurses, and patronizing doctors, Francis finds friendship with a motley assortment of fellow patients: a would-be Napoleon, a wise ex-firefighter, and a man obsessed with battling imagined devils. But there's nothing imaginary about the young nurse found sexually assaulted and brutally murdered late one night after lights-out.The police suspect an inmate, while patients whisper about visions of a white-shrouded "angel." But the striking and mysterious prosecuting attorney who arrives to investigate has her own chilling theory--about the grim, telltale "signature" left on the victim's body, a string of unsolved sex killings, and a very real devil who, by chance or design, has come to turn a madhouse into a slaughterhouse.Now, with the past creeping back to haunt his thoughts, and nothing but a pencil and the bare walls of his bleak apartment, Francis surrenders to the overwhelming need to tell the story of those nightmarish days. But because the crime was never solved, it's a story doomed to remain unfinished. Until, like Francis's long-buried recollections, the killer resurfaces . . . with a vengeance.A tour de force narrative journey through the eerily unpredictable mind of an utterly unusual hero, The Madman's Tale will keep even the most astute thriller reader uncertain, unnerved, and unable to resist the tantalizing twists and turns of this fiendishly suspenseful shadow show.From the Hardcover edition.

Publish Date
Publisher
Fawcett
Language
English
Pages
576

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: The Madman's Tale
The Madman's Tale: A Novel
March 1, 2005, Fawcett
Mass Market Paperback in English
Cover of: The madman's tale
The madman's tale: a novel
2004, Ballantine Books
in English - 1st ed.
Cover of: The Madman's Tale
The Madman's Tale
2004, Random House Publishing Group
Electronic resource in English
Cover of: The Mad Man's Tale
The Mad Man's Tale
June 1, 2004, Bantam Press
Cover of: The madman's tale
The madman's tale
2004, Thorndike Press
in English

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Book Details


First Sentence

"I can no longer hear my voices, so I am a little lost."

The Physical Object

Format
Mass Market Paperback
Number of pages
576
Dimensions
6.8 x 4.1 x 1.3 inches
Weight
9.9 ounces

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL9882759M
ISBN 10
0345464826
ISBN 13
9780345464828
OCLC/WorldCat
58036133
Library Thing
508206
Goodreads
292228

Source records

Better World Books record

First Sentence

"I can no longer hear my voices, so I am a little lost."

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History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON / OPDS | Wikipedia citation
August 28, 2020 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
April 29, 2011 Edited by OCLC Bot Added OCLC numbers.
August 12, 2010 Edited by IdentifierBot added LibraryThing ID
April 24, 2010 Edited by Open Library Bot Fixed duplicate goodreads IDs.
April 30, 2008 Created by an anonymous user Imported from amazon.com record