Maximilian Delacorte was once the world's greatest stage magician--until a mysterious disease ended his career forever. Now, after months of seclusion, Max has lured his family and associates to his lonely mansion for an afternoon of magic, madness, and revenge. Bodies disappear and reappear without warning, severed heads speak words of hate, and nothing is quite what is appears to be. As grisly tricks lead to ever more surprising twists, not even The Great Delacourt can tell where the illusion ends...and murder begins.
Richard Matheson was born in 1926. He began publishing SF with his short story 'Born of Man and Woman' in 1950. I Am Legend was published in 1954 and subsequently filmed as The Omega Man (in 1971), starring Charlton Heston, and I Am Legend (in 2007), starring Will Smith. Matheson wrote the script for the film The Incredible Shrinking Man, an adaptation of his second SF novel The Shrinking Man. The film won a Hugo award in 1958. He wrote many screenplays as well as episodes of The Twilight Zone. He continued to write short stories and novels, some of which formed the basis for film scripts, including Duel, directed by Steven Spielberg in 1971. A film of his novel What Dreams May Come was released in 1998, starring Robin Williams. Stephen King has cited Richard Matheson as a creative influence on his work.
