Alfie is a grieving widower following the death of his wife Pippa, a year before, in somewhat clouded circumstances - the are many mentions of an accident but the cause of death is listed as anaphylactic shock.
Alfie and his twin daughters are coping as best they can in the large, rambling house that Pippa and her twin, Julia, grew up in but one night he wakes to find his twins standing in his bedroom saying there is a man in their room. From there, things just get stranger. The "man" is, apparently, also a snake, a bird and many other entities and Alfie begins to think Black Mamba is an imaginary friend they have conjured up as a way to deal with the loss of their mother. He asks Pippa's twin Julia, a psychotherapist, to talk to the girls to try to find out if he should go along with their "game" or whether it is something he should try to discourage. Meanwhile, Black Mamba's demands get more insidious and menacing.
This book kept me up half the night to see what happened and, for the other half, jumping at shadows.
Alfie and his twin daughters are coping as best they can in the large, rambling house that Pippa and her twin, Julia, grew up in but one night he wakes to find his twins standing in his bedroom saying there is a man in their room. From there, things just get stranger. The "man" is, apparently, also a snake, a bird and many other entities and Alfie begins to think Black Mamba is an imaginary friend they have conjured up as a way to deal with the loss of their mother. He asks Pippa's twin Julia, a psychotherapist, to talk to the girls to try to find out if he should go along with their "game" or whether it is something he should try to discourage. Meanwhile, Black Mamba's demands get more insidious and menacing.
This book kept me up half the night to see what happened and, for the other half, jumping at shadows.