Bad Ronald (novel)


Bad Ronald is a 1973 horror novel by Jack Vance first published by Ballantine Books. It was adapted into a made-for-television thriller, also called Bad Ronald, in 1974, as well as a French production, Méchant garçon, in 1992.
Bad Ronald received a Prix Mystère de la critique in 1980 for best foreign novel.

Plot summary

Ronald Wilby, a 17-year-old boy with divorced parents, lives with his mother. Living with his first sexual urges, he tries to rape a girl. He kills the girl and buries her. Having forgotten his jacket at the scene of the crime, he confesses to his mother, who decides to hide Ronald in their house. She tells the police that her son has disappeared. Ronald lives in his hidden room, only going out into the rest of the house at night. When his mother dies, a couple and their three daughters move into the house.