The Cypress House
After making his name with five strong crime novels, Koryta started adding chills to the thrills in the horror-tinged So Cold the River (2010). In this one, battle-hardened WWI veteran Arlen Wagner can foretell others’ deaths. With the Great Depression crippling the country, he works in the Civilian Conservation Corps and keeps his demons at bay with hard work and a flask full of whiskey. He and young friend Paul Brickhill are traveling by train to a new CCC camp in the Florida Keys when Arlen’s supernatural sense tells him they have to get off the train if they want to stay alive. They find themselves at Cypress House, a strangely empty fishing resort on the Gulf Coast run by beautiful but taciturn Rebecca Cady—and right in the middle of a vipers’ nest of small-town corruption and misery. Koryta is superb with mood and setting, and, if a bit too much of the plot is revealed in stories the characters tell to each other, the simmering tension erupts into a rolling boil by the bloody, spooky, and satisfying ending.       HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Koryta’s stock has only risen since his Edgar-nominated first novel. His first crossover supernatural thriller evoked comparisons to Stephen King and Peter Straub; a big promotional push this time will extend that momentum still further. --Keir Graff