HORSES OF THE NIGHT, THE by Michael Cadnum - SIGNED FIRST EDITION BOOK

Stratton Fields, a member of a distinguished San Francisco family, has a vision for how this world can be made a more perfect place. His affection for children and desire to carry on his family's tradition of philanthropy have won him both admiration and love. On the surface he appears to have everything a man could want. But his life is a web of secrets. The family fortune has dissipated during his mother's slide into madness. His brother Rick is a charming weakling plagued with debts. And Stratton himself is seething over his lack of recognition as an architect and over a creeping fear of powerlessness. When Stratton is visited by what he thinks are the powers of darkness, he reluctantly accepts their help. To his amazement and growing horror, a bargain begun in anger grows into a desperate struggle as a cycle of mystifying violence draws ever closer to the people he loves. Stratton is forced to find the courage to confront what must be his own madness, his own responsibility for the terrifying deaths of those who blocked his career and of those he loved.