Unwelcome Hosts

Sadie is frumpy, sad, and frustrated in herself, but has accepted a life of quiet domestic misery with her overbearing girlfriend Jill. At least she isn't alone. She can't imagine anything worse.

Worse comes when Quentin, her dearest friend, passes away just when he always predicted he would. But he leaves her his apartment, and everything in it. Sadie sees it as a gift. It's the one place where she was safe and happy. She knows every inch of it -- excepting the spare room, which has been shut up ever since Quentin's uncle died there, many years ago.

The inheritance gives Sadie the freedom and the courage to try independence. But independence brings loneliness, and loneliness has always weighed heavily on Sadie. When the nightmares start, she adopts a cat, a cat with bright green eyes and a strange little voice. Together, the two find companionship and understanding.

But Sadie's loneliness is soon replaced by something like madness, and their haven is turned inside out by its hidden past. Now neither Sadie nor her cat Dorcas are safe. Because Quentin left Sadie everything, and some gifts have strings even the giver can't sever.