Over the past twenty years, it has been my pleasure to entertain you with books relating tales of terror and mayhem. But, as I'm sure you've suspected, there are at least as many stories I haven't yet told, for the very simple reason that they have never fit comfortably into the publishing forum we call "the novel."

Now, thanks to Stephen King and his groundbreaking serial novel, The Green Mile, a newly revitalized form of publication has become available to us all. The form of the serial is far from new--its history stretches from Dickens's serialized novels in the 1850's and '60's through the Saturday afternoon adventures that my generation enjoyed in movie theaters. But serial novels haven't appeared since my grandfather's day--until The Green Mile.

So it was with mounting excitement that I watched as subsequent installments of King's tale proved that the form is as fresh today as it was when Dickens employed it. For ever since I wrote my first novel, Suffer the Children, I have been living with the fictional town of Blackstone in my head. I clearly see the village in New Hampshire, right down the road from Port Arbello; its shady-lined streets, its even more shadowy history. Its characters are vivid to me. (In fact, over the years, some characters from my other novels have moved to Blackstone, as you shall see). Their secrets, their sins, and the sins of their fathers seem so real they are more like memories than inventions.

There are several leading families in my imaginary Blackstone--the Connallys, the Beckers, the McGuires, the Hartwicks. All have a part to play as the drama unfolds. Over the generations their lives have intertwined: births, marriages, deaths, business dealings, rivalries, hardships and occasional triumphs (all the stuff of our lives, in other words) have created among them the connections--and separations--shared by these prominent citizens of my little town. Above all, one person, one series of shocking and secret circumstances has bound them together. But how could I explain those relationships, those events--and the catalyst that set in motion the evil that now shadows their lives? What was the best way to tell these separate stories, each of them linked to long-hidden moments in the past, each of them linked to each other, each of them linked to a powerful force that is about to make its insidious presence known?

It seemed to me that this "new" form, the novel conceived in parts, or installments, provided the answer and The Blackstone Chronicles finally began to take place for me on the printed page, as did the objects--artifacts of evil, if you will--that symbolized for me each of the stories I wanted to tell. The Doll is the first of these and it arrives on the doorstep of the McGuire family in Part One. Who sent this gift to Elizabeth and Bill McGuire--and why--I leave you to discover. But I warn you that you won't know the full story until the very end, some months from now! In the meantime, several more presents from the past will have made their way to various carefully selected denizens of Blackstone. And I hope that as you finish the last page of each part, another piece of the puzzle will have been revealed--and that you will experience the delicious thrill of anticipating the next installment. And as you finish each volume of The Blackstone Chronicles, perhaps you will let your imagination conjure up the terrors that might await in future installments.

So, without further ado, I offer you An Eye for an Eye: The Doll, the first of the half dozen gifts I've prepared for you this year.

I hope you enjoy opening them as much as I've enjoyed wrapping them.