The Cypress House

by Michael Koryta

When Arlen Wagner, who can see impending death in people's eyes, warns fellow rail passengers that the train is going to crash, only Paul Brickhall heeds his warning, but the two end up stranded at The Cypress House, an isolated Gulf Coast boarding house.

• ISBN10: 0316053724
• ISBN13: 9780316053723
• Publish Date: 24 January 2011 (first published 1 January 2011)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Little, Brown & Company
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 432
• Language: English

Reviews

[ibeforem]

This wasn’t at all what I expected. Despite the popularity of Koryta’s previous novel, So Cold the River, I haven’t read it yet, so this is my first experience with him. I was definitely not disappointed. Koryta gives us an unusual guy in an unusual situation, yet manages to make it all seem perfectly normal. Arlen’s "gift" — the ability to see that someone is "marked for death" — could have been the centerpiece of the story. In fact, I expected it to be. Instead, it’s just another thing about Arlen, and you even find yourself forgetting about it at times. It remains important to the plot, and influences several of Arlen’s decisions, but it doesn’t overwhelm it. I really liked the twists and turns and surprising places this story takes us, especially when Arlen shows his bad-ass side. Whether or not you’ve read Koryta before, this is a book I can heartily recommend. Don’t let the supernatural tag scare you.