In the weeks after the death of her father, bestselling horror writer Rene Duke, Pip Duke’s inner demons have become too much to bear. She hears voices constantly, babbling and contradicting each other from one moment to the next. One voice tells her she deserves to inherit everything from her father’s estate; another says she’s guilty of his death. One voice tells her that the friends and family with whom her father surrounded himself are nothing but vultures, out for his rare book collection and immense wealth; another says the cops suspect her of his murder.

Overwhelmed by uncontrollable thoughts, Pip has checked herself into Sheltering Oaks, an in-patient therapy center, but the staff there is every bit as suspicious and untrustworthy as the people she hoped to escape. Plus, according to her more pessimistic personae, there are those who would prefer she stayed in the hospital indefinitely, since her mental incapacity could serve as grounds for relinquishing her inheritance; others—her father's publishers, for example—want Pip released as soon as possible, to lend credibility to the "lost manuscripts" they hope to produce to keep the cash from the Duke franchise rolling in. In order to separate the truth from all those whispering lies, Pip will have to untangle her most sordid memories and unlock the dark door in her psyche; only then will she discover long-buried secrets capable of freeing her from her past once and for all.

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