I’ve just finished reading Michael Koryta’s latest spine-chilling thriller called “The Cypress House”, a novel that spans 57 chapters and split into five parts, and I have to say I’m completely exhausted! After gorging on his beautifully crafted vocabulary, “The Cypress House” left me breathless.
I had the pleasure of reading Koryta’s “So Cold the River” in September last year (which incidentally reached number three in my top 15 books of 2010), a wonderful book that was “hypnotic and hauntingly chilling” – his latest novel is in similar vein but at the same time so very different.
“Arlen Wagner has seen it in men before – a trace of smoke in their eyes that promises imminent death. He is never wrong.
When Arlen and his young companion Paul Brickhill are stranded at the Cypress House with a hurricane approaching, Paul won’t abandon the boarding house’s enigmatic mistress Rebecca to face the storm alone.
But Arlen’s gift warns him that if they stay too long, they may never leave.”
The book, set in post war 1935 America, introduces us to the curious and mysterious Arlen Wagner who himself is no stranger to death following his exploits at Belleau Wood, France against the Germans. Crammed on a train bound for the Florida Keys Arlen sees danger and death in the eyes of his fellow travellers. When the train stops for a brief respite he begs his fellow travellers not to re-join the train. Convinced he’s mad they all ignore his warnings, all except one that is, and continue to the Keys. Paul Brickhill, a young and naïve 19 year old stays with Arlen and together they embark on a perilous journey.
Published by Hodder “The Cypress House” is available from Amazon (UK) and Amazon (US)
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