Have you ever wondered why it is always the bright child who is killed in an accident? Gifted children we need to advance our technology, to find the answers to our problems, die in incidents where others survive. In my personal experience, I mourn three such children.

Daniel Fallon believes an evil presence provokes innocent people to kill gifted children to impoverish us. A whisper of an imaginary slight in an innocent's ear grows from irritation to anger, to homicidal rage, to murder. Daniel Fallon and a young woman, Sheena Galloway, become allies in the struggle to track down this creature and destroy it.

My advice: lock the doors, settle in your chair with your favourite crisps, a bottle of strengthening Lucozade, and a stout shillelagh. Don't turn down the lights.