The Cypress House

By: Michael Koryta

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff

Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

A journey to Florida's coast becomes an inescapable nightmare in this supernatural thriller from international bestselling author Michael Koryta.

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 awakens on a train one hot Florida night and sees death's telltale sign in the eyes of his fellow passengers, he tries to warn them. Only 19-year-old Paul Brickhill believes him, and the two abandon the train, hoping to escape certain death. They continue south, but soon are stranded at the Cypress House—an isolated Gulf Coast boarding house run by the beautiful Rebecca Cady—directly in the path of an approaching hurricane.

The storm isn't the only approaching danger, though. A much deadlier force controls the county and everyone living in it, and Arlen wants out—fast. But Paul refuses to abandon Rebecca to face the threats alone, even though Arlen's eerie gift warns that if they stay too long they may never leave. From its chilling beginning to terrifying end, The Cypress House is a story of relentless suspense from "one of the best of the best" (Michael Connelly).

©2011 Michael Koryta (P)2011 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Michael Koryta is one of our new dynamos in the world of books, and in The Cypress House he spreads his range, wedding suspense with the supernatural in the eeriness of 1930s Florida. He uses the psychology of place to penetrate the human heart and delivers his tale of hurricanes and love and hauntings with great narrative force. Koryta's becoming a wonder we'll appreciate for a long time."—Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter's Bone

"The Cypress House is a dazzling blend of suspense, the supernatural, and superb storytelling. What a gifted writer. Michael Koryta is the real deal."—Ron Rash, author of Serena

"Koryta's masterful follow-up to So Cold the River effectively combines supernatural terror with the suffocating fatalism of classic American noir....Koryta excels at describing both scenery and his characters' inner landscapes. It's hard to think of another book with equal appeal to Stephen King and Cornell Woolrich fans."—Publishers Weekly

ENDED UP BEING A GREAT STORY!

Slow to grab me, but drew me in as time went on. Good character development. I was pleasantly surprised by unexpected twists and turns the plot took. Great narration made me instantly recognize the characters by their 'voices.'

So not that interesting

So this starts off about a guy who can see when people are going die soon, but ends up a deep south murder mystery. None of the characters were likeable, the women (woman? can't remember more than one) was exactly like a man's idea of a woman (not a compliment). the 'magical' premise of the story turns out to have been mostly a distraction, not very important to the story. Just a big waste of time.

Wait... What?

I just couldn't get into this book. The sound effects drove me nuts, the characters weren't people I could relate to or understand, or even like just a little, and I just kind of thought the whole thing was... overwrought.

The closest comparison I can think of is either 'Key Largo', or 'Lisey's Story', both by Stephen King. Like those two, this book is well-written, and based on interesting ideas, but overall, the only appeal is that I like the author enough to give all his books a try, but this one just didn't pan out well for me.

Needs work

Michael needs more practice. Story couldn't get out of it's own way. Could have been interesting.

Cypress House

After reading Michael Koryta's Lincoln Perry series my husband and I were eager for more from this author. Unfortunately this is as far from Lincoln Perry as can be. This is a paranormal tale and not at all what we were expecting. If paranormal and not murder mystery is for you this might be good for you, but we didn't like it at all.

Excruciating

I found this book almost impossible to listen to and I REALLY like Michael Koryta. It was SO far-fetched that I simply found it painful to listen. The narration was very well done and is probably the only thing that kept me going till the end.

2 ½ stars. Bad subject matter for me.

Artificial secret keeping, stupidity, too much helpless victim feel.

This was not entertaining or fun. I was not surprised or delighted. I liked the beginning, but the longer I read the more annoyed and frustrated I felt. The biggest problem was subject matter. The second problem was people keeping secrets for no good reason.

SECRETS:
Secrets were used to create mystery and conflict. They did not make sense. Some were stupid. Several times I wanted to shake a character and say “tell them.”

Arlen loves Paul like a son and does things to help and protect Paul. At the end of the book, Paul has been given a gift from an anonymous source. Arlen is the source but does not tell Paul he did it. Why keep that secret? It was the end of the book and I was ready for some happy feelings, but instead I get another secret. I was annoyed.

Many of the secrets were Rebecca not telling Arlen what was going on. Arlen also kept secrets from Paul. I liked Envy the Night by this author. In that book characters didn’t tell all they knew, but it fit their motivations.

SUBJECT MATTER - METAPHOR STYLE:
Two guys are looking for work and accidentally walk into a nest of poisonous snakes. Instead of running away like sane people, they stay because of a pretty girl. The leader of the snakes tells the girl he will kill her brother if she doesn’t do what he wants. The brother is tied up. She thinks as soon as he gets untied they can leave. But when he is no longer tied, he wants to stay. She doesn’t tell him the snakes are poisonous. And she continues to NOT tell him. Most of the story is about snakes threatening good guys.

In contrast, in Envy the Night by Koryta, thugs come to town and have no idea that two very skilled and talented good guys will cause problems for them. That was fun because the good guys had some control. That is also what’s going on with the fabulously successful Jack Reacher series (by Lee Child). Thugs have no idea what they’re up against when they meet Reacher. In Cypress, the good guys have no power and suffer.

I feel helpless when I think about corruption in the world around me. I read fiction to feel good. I want to see someone with control. Books like this pull me down rather than up.

ACTUAL STORY BRIEF:
Arlen was a soldier in WWI who is now traveling with Paul looking for work during the depression. They pass through a town where the judge and sheriff are part of a drug organization. When Arlen and Paul arrive, the judge and sheriff put them in jail, beat them, and take all their money. When they get out of jail, instead of leaving they hang around.

A secondary story is Arlen’s psychic gift. He sees smoke in the eyes of people who will die. His father had a psychic gift of talking to people after they died.

OPINION ABOUT THE PSYCHIC TALENTS:
The story was good in the beginning about Arlen’s gift. And the ending climax scene had some of this which was very good. But the main story would have been better if it focused more on this gift - having more psychic things happening during the middle of the book.

Another annoyance: Arlen kept insisting that his father was insane which was not true. And Arlen did not believe his father had a psychic ability. Because Arlen had his own psychic gift, it did not make sense that he disbelieved his father’s.

MY FAVORITE PART:
Paul was fun to watch and think about. He was a 19-year-old engineering genius. He was in control when it came to machines and structures.

NARRATOR:
The narrator Robert Petkoff was pretty good. But I have mixed feelings about his southern drawl for Arlen.

Genre: paranormal mystery suspense

Aaarrrrg! A no go for me.

I tried to get into this book, I even made it far past the halfway point. But, I just got tired of all the bad choices and secrets that the characters kept from one another. I figure that if I spend a good amount of time thinking "What the hell are you thinking?" or getting aggravated when a character does or doesn't do something or does or doesn't say something it's time to put the book to bed. I read (listen) for pleasure and relaxation, not to get my blood pressure up. The one bright star in the time spent on this book was that the narrator is a good one.

Agonizing to finish

Usually the reviews of other listeners are correct about a book; some are positive, some are negative. This book received almost unanimous approval. I hated it. I mean I really hated it. It was agonizing to finish it. It was trite, the characters were hackneyed, it was repetitious and the background music, UGH! The author telegraphed every single plot twist. There wasn't a single surprise. Not one. In fact, the only reason I kept listening was to see if Koryta could come up with a single original character or plot scene. He couldn't. The author couldn't decide if he wanted to be Stephen King or Nora Roberts. The paranormal stuff made absolutely no sense. The protagonist could see who would die by the look in the person's eyes. But sometimes he couldn't and then sometimes he could but then they wouldn't die and he could speak with the dead and sometimes they would help him and sometimes they wouldn't. Sometimes the dead would be really good people and sometimes they would remain their nasty human selves. I mean, come on, stupid is as stupid does. My advice, don't be lured by the book description. This book really, really stinks. If you want a good romance thriller, read a Harlequin novel. At least, with them you get what you expect. I listen to hundred books a year. This one was #99.

Great narrator, disappointing story

This was a disappointment. Although it was atmospheric and had some good writing, it was overly long and, even more detrimental, there was no emotional depth to the characters. Even the good performance by Robert Petkoff didn't redeem it.