The Amulet

By: Michael McDowell

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

When a rifle range accident leaves Dean Howell disfigured and in a vegetative state, his wife Sarah finds her dreary life in Pine Cone, Alabama made even worse. After long and tedious days on the assembly line, she returns home to care for her corpselike husband while enduring her loathsome and hateful mother-in-law, Jo. Jo blames the entire town for her son’s mishap, and when she gives a strange piece of jewelry to the man she believes most responsible, a series of gruesome deaths is set in motion. Sarah believes the amulet has something to do with the rising body count, but no one will believe her. As the inexplicable murders continue, Sarah and her friend Becca Blair have no choice but to track down the amulet themselves, before it’s too late . . .

Michael McDowell (1950-1999) is best known for his screenplays to the films Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas, but he was also the author of several excellent and underrated Southern Gothic horror novels, of which The Amulet (1979) was the first. Originally published as a pulp paperback, now scarce and long out-of-print, McDowell’s grimly humorous and delightfully horrific novel is brilliantly narrated by Julia Whelan.

©1979 Estate of Michael McDowell (P)2017 Valancourt Books LLC

Critic reviews

"The finest writer of paperback originals in America today." - Stephen King

“[O]ne of the best writers of horror in this or any other country.” - Peter Straub

"McDowell has a flair for the gruesome.” - Washington Post

Truly chilling

This was so creepy but wonderfully so. The innocent main character descending into madness. If you love well told spooky stories this one is for you

when the lady fell in the pig pen the Amulet

loved it very scary, real page turner good story line was on the edge of my seat the Amulet