The Poison of a Smile

The charade of civility is over,
the ceremony of innocence drowned…

“The truth about Cristian Salazar may never be known,
so I will invent it for you…”

When Daniel Leigh’s beloved Helena vanishes from his life, he journeys to the home of Cristian Salazar, a disgraced artist of the macabre who employed her as his servant and model. Once in the quiet town of Carliton, Leigh is beguiled by Salvatore, a house of illusion and restless spirits, and at first Cristian’s charming manner holds sway over the young man.

But gradually he discovers the truth about Salazar and the sinister Cousin Beatriz, from the tales of madness and murder told by the few people brave enough to speak ill of them. In time, Daniel Leigh comes to realise that Cristian and Beatriz possess not only the key to Helena’s fate, but the desire to slaughter the town’s young.

And within shadows, in the guise of night, Aurelia Salazar seeks revenge from beyond the grave…

“For one moment, an insane thought reared, spectrelike and uncanny, before my mind: had Cristian Salazar somehow painted her into existence? She was unfinished, incomplete…”

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