Prologue Summary

The House Next Door tells the story of an allegedly haunted, or possessed, house that plays upon the weakness of the people who live in or even visit the home. Before the house is destroyed by well-meaning neighbors Colquitt and Walter Kennedy, it is the setting of a terrible accident that results in a miscarriage, the complete breakdown of an emotionally unstable woman and the murder-suicide of an entire family. Although others believe the occurrences in the house are merely the result of bad luck, the Kennedys trace the home's bad nature back to Kim Dougherty, the architect who built the house. In the final chapter of the book the Kennedys have murdered Kim and prepare to burn down the house.

Colquitt Kennedy begins the novel by describing the type of people she and her husband are not. They are not rich. They...