The Bad Seed

Finalist, National Book Awards 1955 for Fiction

1955_The Bad Seed by William March book cover
ISBN 9780553208207
Vintage | Random House Publishing Group

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William March’s 1954 classic thriller that’s as chilling, intelligent and timely as ever before.

What happens to ordinary families into whose midst a child serial killer is born? This is the question at the center of William March’s classic thriller. After its initial publication in 1954, the book went on to become a million–copy bestseller, a wildly successful Broadway show, and a Warner Brothers film. The spine–tingling tale of little Rhoda Penmark had a tremendous impact on the thriller genre and generated a whole perdurable crop of creepy kids. Today, The Bad Seed remains a masterpiece of suspense that’s as chilling, intelligent, and timely as ever before.

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