Did You Get the Package?

Fans of Kliewer's We Used to Live Here and Steadman’s Something in the Water will lose their minds over John Harrison’s latest psychological thriller!

Mira and Kieran Carpenter are moving into their first home together, a run-down fixer-upper in a historic Pittsburgh neighborhood. To parents and friends, the building is a horror. To Mira, an architect, and Kieran, an accomplished musician, it represents the opportunity to forget the betrayals of the past and restore their marriage along with this new home. Until . . .

A strange delivery is left by the front door. Neither Mira nor Kieran remember ordering it. There is no gift card. No sender. No acknowledgment of its origin. Inside the package is an old wooden box. Just a simple, scarred wooden case with nothing to suggest any real value. An old jewelry case, or a memento chest? A family heirloom, perhaps?

No one they know admits sending it, and soon the two of them are too preoccupied with their careers and house renovations to care where it came from. But then, the messages start arriving.

Anonymous texts, late-night phone calls, and distorted voicemails:

“Did you get the package?”

Things start to go wrong. Around their new house. At work. In their personal relationships. Colleagues become difficult. Friends fall away. Even their own relationship starts to fray. Is it the box? Has it brought a curse into their home?

And the messages keep coming . . .

“Did you get the package?”

Are they victims of some kind of horrific prank? Are they being tormented because of something they’ve done? Or, are they gaslighting themselves into some kind of psychosis?

Whatever it is, it won’t end well.