Courtesy of Death
A retired engineer in rural Britain finds himself caught up in the murderous machinations of an ancient pagan blood cult
A former British mining engineer, Yarrow is hoping to start over in the English countryside as the owner and operator of a small combination inn and garage. But while staying the night at a prospective property near Avalon, he is awakened by a loud pounding at the door—and opens it to discover a distraught, seemingly mad visitor babbling on about all manner of incomprehensible concerns. Intrigued by the engaging lunatic Barnabas Fosworthy and unable to turn a deaf ear to his desperate pleas for help in finding a missing young woman, the all-too-good-hearted Yarrow inadvertently invites grave danger into his life. Fosworthy is part of a circle of crazed fanatics tied to ancient and terrifying beliefs—and before Yarrow realizes what he has gotten himself into, he finds himself trapped in an underground cavern, the prisoner of determined cultists who view murder as a gift. Now he must pursue every conceivable path toward escape—or consign himself a horrifying end.
Chilling, surprising, and utterly riveting, The Courtesy of Death is a wildly imaginative suspense yarn that blends intrigue with a touch of the otherworldly. Filled with action and unforeseen twists, this is the bravura work of a master storyteller operating at the very top of his game.
Geoffrey Household
Geoffrey Household (1900–1988) was born in England. In 1922 he earned a bachelor of arts degree in English literature from the University of Oxford. After graduation, he worked at a bank in Romania before moving to Spain in 1926 and selling bananas as a marketing manager for the United Fruit Company.
In 1929 Household moved to the United States, where he wrote children’s encyclopedia content and children’s radio plays for CBS. From 1933 to 1939, he traveled internationally as a printer’s-ink sales rep. During World War II, he served as an intelligence officer for the British army, with posts in Romania, Greece, Syria, Lebanon, and Persia. After the war, he returned to England and wrote full time until his death. He married twice, the second time in 1942 to Ilona Zsoldos-Gutmán, with whom he had three children, a son and two daughters.
Household began writing in the 1920s and sold his first story to the Atlantic Monthly in 1936. His first novel, The Terror of Villadonga, was published during the same year. His first short story collection, The Salvation of Pisco Gabar and Other Stories, appeared in 1938. Altogether, Household wrote twenty-eight novels, including four for young adults; seven short story collections; and a volume of autobiography, Against the Wind (1958). Most of his novels are thrillers, and he is best known for Rogue Male (1939), which was filmed as Man Hunt in 1941 and as a TV movie under the novel’s original title in 1976.
