FOR RENT: Top two floors of beautifully renovated brownstone, 1300 sq. ft., 2BR 2BA, eat-in kitchen, one block to parks and playgrounds. No broker’s fee.
Susan and Alex Wendt have found their dream apartment.
Sure, the landlady is a little eccentric. And the elderly handyman drops some cryptic remarks about the basement. But the rent is so low, it’s too good to pass up.
Big mistake. Susan soon discovers that her new home is crawling with bedbugs . . . or is it? She awakens every morning with fresh bites, but neither Alex nor their daughter Emma has a single welt. An exterminator searches the property and turns up nothing. The landlady insists her building is clean. Susan fears she’s going mad—until a more sinister explanation presents itself: she may literally be confronting the bedbug problem from Hell.
“By turns gruesome and compelling, fueled by a slow-burn tension, and full of in-jokes about contemporary Brooklyn culture, Winters's breezy summer read will leave readers compulsively scratching.”—Publishers Weekly
“The author of the monster mash-up hit Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (2009) offers up a chilling tale of life in the perfect New York abode gone horribly wrong…Winters expertly builds suspense in this chilling thriller.”—Booklist
"Bedbugs infest the life of a young couple who move into a peculiar brownstone in Brooklyn in Ben H. Winter's diabolical tale of paranoia and domestic unrest.”—Vanity Fair Hot Type
“I would not recommend reading Bedbugs in bed; it’s that gripping—and grotesque. . . This creepy story is expertly told, and will having you scratching imaginary itches long after you finish reading.”—Penthouse
“After reading Bedbugs you might want to fumigate any apartment you rent. You also might want to call in an exorcist.”—McClatchy Newspapers
“The book is a lot of fun and a great fall read for when you’re bundled under a pile of blankets that may or may not be full of creepy-crawlies.”—DenofGeek.com
“All in all, Bedbugs is a solid read, a good thriller, and I guarantee you will have the creepy ‘I need to bleach my pillowcases in hot water’ crawlies for days after.”—DaemonBooks.com
“A rich blend of classic psychological suspense and horror. If Alfred Hitchcock were still with us, this is a book he would adapt to film.”—MonsterLibrarian.com
“Bedbugs is one disgusting, fascinating novel. Be warned, and put the exterminator’s number on speed-dial.”—Sacramento News & Review
“You’ll want to crawl under the covers while reading the super-spooky new novel Bedbugs, by Ben H. Winters—but you won’t, because it does for the bed what Psycho did for the shower!”—InStyle
“Bedbugs is a psychological thriller with Hitchcockian suspense.”—Los Angeles Times
“...the bloodcurdling Bedbugs manages to succeed in doing what rarely happens off the screen: Keep things spooky enough that it’s impossible to go to sleep without knowing how it ends. Even then, you may leave the lights on and sleep on the floor.”—NewCity.com
“Clean and taut with soul-baring inner monologues...Winters delivers prose that delicately piles on the novel's mounting intensity, using both light humor and doom...Bedbugs gets under our skin with the best of old-fashioned horror and newfangled gore.”—Creative Loafing’s Daily Loaf
