The Cypress House [Paperback]

The qualities that have Michael Koryta mentioned in the company of Stephen King, Dan Simmons, Dennis Lehane and Dean Koontz were certainly evident in the author's previous novel, So Cold the River - a good sense of pacing and structure in a horror story that gradually built in intensity towards a strong finale - but the actual nature of the supernatural element and its similarity to Stephen King's The Shining was not the most convincing. There doesn't seem to be any real need to include a supernatural element here either - the thriller element of The Cypress House is strong and would work well on its own - but there's no doubt that the gift (or curse) that Alden Wagner carries with him is a particularly sinister one that give the book an additional dark edge. A war veteran and drifter heading down to the Florida Keys with a talented young builder looking for work during the Depression, Alden has the horrifying ability to foresee those who are about to face imminent death.

The vision afflicts him on the train to the Keys, seeing not just the skeletal vision of one person, but of everyone on the train. Alden and his companion Paul immediately get off the train at the next stop, but are unable to persuade the others to do so. What happens to the men on the train is almost inevitable, since Alden's vision is never wrong. They accept a lift from a passing salesman who agrees to take them south, but at one of his mysterious coastal stops in Corridor County, the two men arrive at the Cypress House, managed by a beautiful woman, Rebecca. Finding themselves in trouble with the local law, Alden and Paul are unable to leave, and have not only to weather a hurricane which devastates the region, but they have to be wary of mysterious activities and dangerous illegal business taking place at the Cypress House.

Having used the vision of death to bring them to the Cypress House, there is surprisingly little use made of Alden's gift for the majority of the rest of the book. There are premonitions of death, certainly, but with the kind of law enforcement authorities operating in the area, the activities they are involved in, and Paul and Alden being in the way, it doesn't take any supernatural ability to see where this is going to lead. With or without the horror element - which does actually come into play quite effectively later in the book and in relation to Alden's backstory - Koryta's plotting of the thriller elements is tight and compelling, the writing terse and to the point, and his development of the tensions between the characters is just superb. Neither the character types nor the situation are particularly original (nor is the horror element grafted onto the story), and none of this leads anywhere surprising, but The Cypress House ultimately succeeds as a tense, well-written and gripping horror thriller.

There's something about the American writers that appeals to me (the good ones, at least), but I'm not exactly sure what it is. Maybe it's the romance of the settings, or the pacier prose. Maybe it's the nostalgia I feel for all the American films I grew up with as a kid, or that the first quarter of my reading life was spent on Stephen King. I just don't know. What I do know, though, is that I have a love for Southern Gothic.

The Deep American South has an aching emptiness that seems to be the seedbed for melancholic ponderings and sparse and poetic dialogues over crackling campfires and under midnight skies. If it's done right, you end up with novels such as Alden Bell's The Reapers Are The Angels, or Robert Jackson Bennett's Mr Shivers. Michael Koryta's The Cypress House doesn't have the literary gravitas of those aforementioned novels, but it's Southern Gothic done right, all right.

Arlen Wagner has a terrible gift: he can see smoke in men's eyes that warns him of their imminent death, and he is never wrong. Riding a train bound for the Florida Keys, Arlen sees this smoke in the eyes of the men his travelling with, but none of them heed his warning accept for his young companion, Paul Brickhill. He and Paul get off the train at the next stop and trudge through the rain to find a place to stay, and soon find themselves in a solitary boarding house located on the eerie marsh land of the Gulf Coast. At first it feels good to be out of the rain, but Arlen soon realises there are more deadly things at the Cypress House than the imminent hurricane.

The supernatural element is slight, and the story slips into standard thriller mode for long periods, with the corrupt local law enforcement supplying a good deal of the suspense, but Koryta has not merely adorned Arlen with a superficial and ghostly gift to serve the plot. It goes deeper than that. Along with a poignant back story, Arlen's gift supplies us with a well-judged arc that adds a touch of pathos to what is already an interesting and original character.

Koryta handles atmosphere and setting expertly too. With the impending threat of the hurricane and the undercurrent of the supernatural, the Cypress House positively drips with that aching emptiness and desolation that epitomizes the Southern Gothic tale. And in an industry where the quality of the written word is no longer a prerequisite of the published author, Koryta's prose is flawless and unfussy, and his dialogue is spoken by the characters and not written by the writer.

This was my first sojourn in Michael Koryta's world, and I plan on visiting again soon. A fine book by a fine writer. And if Southern Gothic is your thing, as it is mine, you could do a lot worse than lend Koryta your ear, and sit with him by the crackling campfire, under the midnight sky, and listen to his tale of The Cypress House.

Well written thriller,with a supernatural element.It was an interesting read and builds to a tense end.I'm not sure if the 'ghosty' bits actually add anything but they help the story along.