Books like Nightshade by Gloria Murphy

Jennifer, widowed at a very early age counts her blessings. In 1986 her 11-year-old twins, Matthew and Margo are bright and well mannered and her life is taking an upswing with her career in a small New England town. Not everybody is rooting for Jennifer. A man named Seth watches her and plans on stalking her and making her and the twins his family. He kidnaps the twins from school one afternoon and takes them to his home, which is isolated in a woody area. He alternately abuses the twins verbally and lulls them into a false sense of security. Seth appears to be using the twins to live vicariously and to re-live his early experiences. Institutionalized as a boy, Seth revisits those experiences on Matthew. Cropping the boy's beautifully Beatle coiffed hair into a military stub, he tells him how the enforced haircut is "good" for him because he, Seth had military cuts on a weekly basis at that age. Margo acts as her brother's protector; she tries to spare him from this indignity to no avail. Jennifer finally tracks her children down, thanks to Seth's actually telephoning her and telling her where to find them. Once there, many secrets and cans of worms are open...questions arise. Just who IS Seth and why did he kidnap Margo and Matthew? And did Jennifer REALLY know him? What is Seth's agenda? And what possible connection, if any does he have to the children he kidnapped and the woman he has been stalking? Readers will remain rivted to this book, eager to reach the somewhat startling conclusions

First publish date: 1986