Bram Stoker Award Best Novel Winner
Mr. X
by Peter Straub
Summary
Ned Dunstan returns to his Illinois hometown of Edgerton and confronts a family inheritance of strange powers, a doppelganger, and the looming threat of his mysterious father, the title figure obsessed with the cosmic horror writings of H. P. Lovecraft. Straub layers a dark family mystery over Lovecraftian dread, following Ned as he pieces together the truth about his birth and the violent man hunting him. Critics admired the novel's intricate structure and its open homage to Lovecraft's mythos.
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Historical Context & Significance
The book won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel and openly draws on the cosmic horror tradition of H. P. Lovecraft.