Effigies

Broadmoor is a breathtakingly beautiful upstate New York town whose population incongruously blends rich expatriates from the city, middle-class set-in-their-ways townsfolk and a commune of young people rumored to hold wild sex orgies. Tourists are fairly uncommon in Broadmoor, and usually noticeable. But, oddly enough, the man with the grotesquely withered ear, feverishly snapping pictures (mostly of children), is barely noticed at all.

Nicole Bannister is one of Broadmoor's rich elite who, at the moment, cares nothing bout strangers. She's excited about a package that has just been delivered to her doorstep. And Nicole is not about to wait for her husband, Jonathan, or her 7-year-old daughter to get home before opening it because she loves surprises, relishes them. So, very slowly, Nicole unravels the string, peels off the paper, opens the box. And inside, neatly wrapped, is the severed finger of a child...

The Bannisters' friends are incredulous. Nervous laughter permeates the town. even the "hippies" are sympathetic. But soon people in Broadmoor will experience feelings of anxiety, dread, inexplicable fear. Soon "everyone" in Broadmoor will be locked in an icy grip of evil that boils up from the darkness, the black abyss known as hell---now on earth.