[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-115334-en":3,"doc-seo-115334-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":92},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":11,"is_downloadable":11,"audit_status":11,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},115334,962084925636,"Olivia Brown","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_994ba38a5ba835b3df7d355c54d3ed8d",1,"Story & Novel","Buyer Beware","Buyer Beware is a suspenseful fiction excerpt centered on a crowded property viewing where a buyer’s presence is met with minimal interaction, yet a deeply oppressive atmosphere makes every room feel threatening. In a bedroom marked by stains, misaligned wallpaper, and unsettling discoveries, the narrator reflects on lingering fear and violence within walls, exploring both supernatural impressions and rational explanations like chemosignals and pheromones. As voices intrude and the visit continues, the tension shifts toward the fear of being identified, exposed, and claimed by past horrors tied to the address.","[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nAbout the Author  \nCatherine Ryan Howard is the author of nine novels including the no. 1 bestsellers The Nothing Man, 56 Days, The Trap and Burn After Reading. Her work has been shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Novel, the Crime Writers Association New Blood and Steel Daggers, and Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year multiple times. The screen adaptation of her lockdown thriller, 56 Days, is streaming now on Prime Video. She lives in Dublin.  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nAlso by Catherine Ryan Howard  \nDISTRESS SIGNALS THE LIAR’S GIRL REWIND THE NOTHING MAN  \n56 DAYS RUN TIME  \nTHE TRAP BURN AFTER READING  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nCatherine Ryan Howard  \nBUYER BEWARE  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nTo Peter  \n(but Auntie Catherine says you’re not allowed to read this for at least twenty years)  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nS he shuffles from room to room, impatiently following the flow of  \npeople, mirroring the steps of their polite dance. Move to the side to allow another person to pass in the opposite direction. Press your back against the wall to make a space. Pause to let someone step out of the doorway you’re about to go through.  \nShe wasn’t expecting it to be this busy, but she should’ve been. The newspapers say there’s a housing crisis. This property is in what they call a premium location. And until you see its condition, you might be under the mistaken impression that it’s reasonably priced.  \nBut she’s grateful for the crowd.  \nShe can hide in it.  \nIt also meant that, when she arrived, the man in the too-tight trousers wielding a clipboard at the door only had time to glance at her, ask for a name – the fake one she’d given when she’d registered – and brusquely check it off his list. She’d had a story prepared, but was relieved when she didn’t have to offer it.  \nThe less interaction, the better.  \nAs she lets the human current carry her around the house, she wonders if anyone else in here can sense it. The icy finger of a draught that can’t be traced to an open door or a cracked window. The crushing heaviness that settles on your chest. The air ’s electrical charge, as if somewhere a television is switched on, but muted and not tuned to any channel.  \nThe feeling that, if these walls could talk, they’d scream.  \nWhen she finally reaches the bedroom, she has it all to herself – a stroke of luck that can’t last long. It doesn’t look like much. A dreary, empty space with no curtains on its only window and a carpet covered in stains. But in her mind’s eye, she can fill it with ghostly furniture. An old mahogany wardrobe whose doors don’t quite meet. A small double bed. A framed print above the headboard, a watercolour coastal scene.  \nAnd a knife on the floor, in a pool of glossy red, next to a waxy body. She can still hear the scrape of the blade against bone.  \nShe can’t forget the smell, afterwards: wet pennies.  \nThe floral wallpaper is misaligned and plagued with bubbles and creases; she touches a hand to one of the imperfections and imagines more than mere air trapped underneath.  \nShe never believed in anything supernatural and it’s been years since she believed in anything else, but in some corners there are what could be more rational explanations. Chemosignals, for one. A type of pheromone. They did a study where participants had to smell sweat collected from the armpits of people watching horror movies. It triggered a fear response in their brains. But when it was sweat collected from runners on treadmills, nothing. Some reptilian part of the brain could smell other people being scared, after the fact.  \nAs if the fear itself had survived.  \nIt made her wonder if, back then, these walls could have absorbed it all – the fear, yes, but the darkness, rage and violence, too. If they’ve been slowly seeping back out ever since, like some kind of olfactory telltale heart.  \nIf, one day, they might tell on her.  \nSh","cbCaidEXQpf8VHj4","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaidEXQpf8VHj4","pdf",3743867,8,260,"English","en",105,"# Opening at the property\n## A crowded viewing and minimal contact\n## The bedroom discovery\n## Theories: fear, chemosignals, and memory in walls\n## Confrontation and the buyer’s dread","[{\"question\":\"What happens when the buyer arrives at the house for viewing?\",\"answer\":\"A clipboard-wielding man quickly checks her name off his list, allowing her to avoid further interaction while she moves with the crowd through the rooms.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the bedroom feel especially disturbing?\",\"answer\":\"The room seems dreary and empty, but the narrator imagines ghostly furnishings and recalls a knife and a body, along with an overpowering smell afterward.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the text explain the unsettling atmosphere around the property?\",\"answer\":\"It contrasts supernatural instincts with rational possibilities such as chemosignals and pheromones that may trigger fear responses, suggesting past violence could be lingering in the environment.\"}]","Buyer Beware | 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