The Defective

Ursula Walton shuddered and whispered, "I hear knitting needles clicking and imagine tumbrels rolling...on their way to the guillotine." This, after she and her husband began to realize that the tiny "island paradise" to which they had fled for the summer might be something else altogether: Formerly welcoming neighbors now seem involved in something sinister; and, as events unfold, the spread of revealed treachery grows steadily. Finally, near story's end, just when it seems that terror's worst has been reached, the unthinkable almost leaps from the pages. But underlying good exists throughout, perhaps best exemplified by unqualified love shining between Patrick, the "defective," and a frisky, wild sea otter.