The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane is a 1974 novel by Laird Koenig, about a 13-year-old girl named Rynn Jacobs who lives alone in a house, and murders people who threaten her solitary life. The book was adapted into a film by same name in 1976 that starred Jodie Foster as Rynn and Martin Sheen as perverted antagonist Frank Hallet. Plot Thirteen-year-old Rynn Jacobs, a British immigrant to America, occupies a small but comfortable house at the end of a lane in rural Long Island, New York with her frequently spoken-of yet absentee father. On Halloween night, Rynn celebrates her 13th birthday alone, but is rudely interrupted by the local town deviant and landlady's son, Frank Hallet, who claims to be out trick-or-treating with his wife's two sons (who lag considerably far behind him). Frank pesters Rynn with questions, and leers at her, attempting to pat her buttocks before she whirls around and stops him, to which he defends the act by claiming that by American custom, he gets to spank her on her birthday, before he leaves, embarrassed. The next day, Rynn runs her usual errands in town, revealing that she lives off of traveller's cheques left in a joint bank account by her father, and also that she has a fondness for Emily Dickinson poetry. She spots some other girls her own age on the bus, but finds them vapid and annoying. Rynn does, however, make one new friend: Officer Ron Miglioriti, a local policeman and an Italian immigrant with a kindly and humorous disposition. He cautions Rynn to avoid Frank Hallet, who was caught in the bushes in an incident where he molested an underage girl but was never formally convicted of the crime. Rynn has an altercation with snobbish landlady Cora Hallet, a woman who insists on showing up uninvited and claims to be looking for jelly jars that she keeps stored in the cellar. Mrs. Hallet questions Rynn about her father, demands to know why the girl isn't in school, makes rude ethnic slurs about a local Italian-American family, and hints at the possibility that Rynn is Jewish, making an antisemitic comment about "sweet wine". After Rynn becomes frustrated and mocks Mrs. Hallet for having a sex pervert as a son, the woman slaps the girl harshly across the face, pushes past her and attempts to enter the cellar. Something inside frightens her, causing her to scream, but the cellar door hits her on the head, knocking her unconscious. Rynn attempts to hide the expensive vehicle that Mrs.