The Watcher in the Shadows - Softcover

"Exciting...Plenty of thrills and chills."--Publishers Weekly

"A clever plot, sympathetic characters, and a richly detailed 1930s setting; a haunted, melancholy tone with an air of nostalgia and an atmosphere of menace."--The Horn Book

"A well-written, well-crafted tale full of unique characters with full personalities."--Tor.com

Praise for The Watcher in the Shadows "Zafón cuts between his various characters with cinematic skill, and his habit of telling stories within the narrative is put to spine-tingling use...Good, solid scares."--Booklist

A chilling, compelling mystery from the internationally bestselling author of The Shadow of the Wind.

When fourteen-year-old Irene Sauvelle moves with her family to Cape House on the coast of Normandy, she's immediately taken by the beauty of the place--its expansive cliffs, coasts, and harbors. There, she meets a local boy named Ishmael, and the two soon fall in love. But a dark plot is about to unfold involving a reclusive toymaker who lives in a gigantic mansion filled with mechanical beings and shadows of the past.

As strange lights shine through the fog surrounding a small, barren island, Irene's younger brother dreams of a dark creature hidden deep in the forest. And when a young girl is found murdered, her body at the end of a path torn through the woods by a monstrous, inhuman force, Irene and Ishmael wonder--has a demonic presence been unleashed on the inhabitants of Cape House? Together, they'll have to survive the most terrifying summer of their lives.