Nicola Laughton always believed she’d die first. Being diagnosed with cystic fibrosis as a child, Nicola realized her beloved husband Anton would outlive her, but all that changes on a snowy night with a slick road and a truck traveling too fast in I’LL BE WAITING by Kelley Armstrong.
Nicola is devastated by Anton’s death. She held him in her arms while someone filmed his dying words to her: “I’ll be waiting." Now seven months later, Nicola struggles to move on, seeking solace from mediums who promise to connect her to Anton. She knows they are all fakes, but she presses on until her family and friends offer to have one final séance with a reputable parapsychology professor. They decide to hold the séance at a rambling house on Lake Erie that Anton’s family once owned. Upon arrival, strange occurrences start happening, including noises in the basement, a creaking dumbwaiter, large fly swarms, and a missing neighbor. As the seances begin, Nicola is pulled back to a time in her childhood, where a séance with her friends ended in bloodshed and horror. Back then, she had a different name, and some entity in the house knew it. Has she summoned her dead husband, or has she summoned someone from her bloody past with a grudge to settle?
I’LL BE WAITING is a chilling paranormal thriller set at an isolated lake house with invited and uninvited guests. From the swarming midges to a missing neighbor, there is an ominous feeling to the setting where Nicola tries to summon her dead husband. A lot happens in this novel, and the author does a masterful job of weaving Nicola’s terrifying past into her present situation. As the story unfolds, more questions arise, and readers will start to doubt everything. Is Nicola a reliable narrator? Was her husband involved in her tragic past? And who is haunting the house if not Anton? There are revelations that propel the story in new directions, and the ending is brutal and satisfying. Filled with ghosts, grief, seances, brutal slayings, and a tough protagonist, I’LL BE WAITING is reminiscent of a horror movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat, rooting for the final girl, and waiting for the next twist.
From New York Times Bestselling author Kelley Armstrong comes a spellbinding new tale of supernatural horror involving a haunted-house, seances, lost loved ones, and a sinister spirit out for blood...
Nicola Laughton never expected to see adulthood, being diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis as a child. Then medical advances let her live into her thirties and she met Anton, who taught her to dream of a future… together. Months after they married, Anton died in a horrible car crash, but lived long enough to utter five words to her, “I’ll be waiting for you.”
That final private moment became public when someone from the crash scene took it to the press—the terminally ill woman holding her dying husband as he promised to wait for her on the other side. Worse, that person claimed it wasn’t Anton who said the words but his ghost, hovering over his body.
Since their story went public, Nicola has been hounded by spiritualists promising closure. In the hopes of stopping her downward spiral, friends and family find a reputable medium—a professor of parapsychology. For the séance, they rent the Lake Erie beach house that Anton’s family once owned.
The medium barely has time to begin his work before things start happening. Locked doors mysteriously open. Clouds of insects engulf the house. Nicola hears footsteps and voices and the creak of an old dumbwaiter…in an empty shaft. Throughout it all she’s haunted by nightmares of her past. Because, unbeknownst to the others, this isn’t her first time contacting the dead. And Nicola isn’t her real name.
That’s when she finds the first body....
In this atmospheric, thrilling new ghost story, Kelley Armstrong's full talents are on display to thrill, chill and leave the reader guessing how Nicola escapes with her life--if she can.