Michael Koryta
Black Bay Books
May 12th, 2011/ ISBN 978-0316053716
Mystery / Supernatural
Amazon
Reviewed
by Susan Johnson
Arlen Wagner is a World War I1 veteran suffering from the nightmares
born of the horrors he hads seen while in combat. He works and drinks
his nightmares away while working with the Civil Conversation Corps
during the harsh and cruel times of the great depression. Arlen
is on the way to establish a new camp in the Florida Keys. Also
traveling with him is his young friend Paul Brickham. They are traveling
by train when Arlen begins to feel his supernatural gift kicking
in. He sees skeletons where people’s bodies should be and
smoke coming from the eyes of others that will soon be dead. He
feels that if they don’t get off the train right away that
they will surely die.
After escaping
Arlen’s premonition on the train they find themselves at a
beautiful old fishing resort on the coast of Florida. tThe resort,
known as Cypress House, is almost deserted and is run and ran by
Rebecca Cady, a beautiful but distant woman.
Not long after
their arrival at Cypress House, the men soon realize that they have
stumbled into a town full of corruption and misery and that they
will be lucky to escape alive.
Michael Koryta
has made a name for himself with his past books. His sense of time
and setting are superb. He has taken the classic noir mystery and
suffused it with supernatural horror and yet he has made it work.
Heads up to
Stephen King, Peter Straub and all other horror writers, there is
new competition on the block., Michael Kortya is crossing the lines
and making it his. |