Perfect nightmare

Perfect Nightmare is a novel by the American writer John Saul, published in 2005 and set in a suburban corner of New York.

The book alternates between the Marshalls and the man who has been visiting open houses in search of a particular kind of girl. Lindsay is taken from her bedroom while her parents are looking at apartments in the city, and the investigation is slow to treat her as anything but a runaway because of her age and the timing. Her mother, who had been told about the intruder and had not taken it seriously enough, is the one who keeps looking. The novel also follows a wealthy friend of the family and her brother, who lives alone in the house they grew up in, and the connection between his long retreat from the world and what is happening to Lindsay becomes clear only late. Saul writes it as domestic horror, with the ordinary business of selling a house doing the work of dread.

It is one of a long series of suspense novels by the author, and its plot turns on the exposure that selling a home requires.