The countdown has started for Michael McDowell fans. Neri Pozza, the publishing house that had the merit of making the Italian reading public discover the talent of the American writer and screenwriter who passed away in 1999, has announced the release in bookstores of Katie – for fans, the most anticipated novel of 2025 – next January 14th.
Thus, after Mary Love and Elinor Dammert of the very successful ‘Blackwater’ saga and the ferocious Lena Shanks of Golden needlesMcDowell’s narrative corpus is enriched by a further piece, with an evil protagonist who alternates between divination sessions, cabaret shows and hammer blows. Of this work of his, the author said: “Katie it contains my most disturbing murders and is definitely my cruelest novel. Writing it was fun. To die for.”
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The plot
1871. When the penniless and intrepid Philomela Drax receives a letter from her rich grandfather, in which the latter writes that he fears for her life because of an unscrupulous family, the Slapes, her granddaughter rushes to her rescue. But time is running out, because Katie Slape, a cruel woman with the gift of clairvoyance and a certain ability to deliver hammer blows, is about to prevail. From the dusty streets of a New Jersey village to the glittering sidewalks of Saratoga and all the way to the docks of New York, Philo pursues Katie. Or is it the opposite? No one can escape Katie’s fury.
Katie is the work with which Michael McDowell pays homage to the ruthless penny dreadfuls of the Victorian era. But it is also a thriller that promises to be full of action and twists.
The author
Michael McDowell (1950-1999) is an American writer who published over thirty novels and wrote for television and film (Beetlejuice And Nightmare Before Christmas). Neri Pozza published the six novels of the ‘Blackwater’ saga (2023), which had enormous success with critics and the public, and The golden needles (2024).
The cover
