So Cold the River

I've loved all the Michael Koryta books that I've read previously so I requested this book from the library without knowing anything more than he wrote it. I was shocked to discover it was more of a supernatural thriller/horror than the mystery/thrillers of his that I've read thus far. But this book hooked me just as all his others have and I found myself unable to tear myself away. I was captivated by the setting as much as the story and characters. I find it always a good sign when I finish reading a book when I start doing research into something that was covered in a non-fiction book. In this case: French Lick, West Baden Springs and the hotel. Would love to go see it in person and drink some Pluto Water. Well maybe not drink the water.

So Cold the River is the story of evil from beyond the grave. Eric Shaw is hired to make a video tribute of dying billionaire Campbell Bradford by Bradford’s daughter-in-law Alyssa. Eric has a strange experience with Campbell as Campbell lays dying – Eric can speak with him only through the video camera. If Eric looks up, Bradford’s face is passive and he cannot speak, but through the viewfinder he is animated and communicative. He is cocky and assured and powerful.

Alyssa gives Eric an antique bottle of mineral water that Bradford has kept his entire life. Eric’s natural ability to foresee events is given a twist when he drinks some of the mineral water and starts seeing visions of the past. Are they true?

As Eric continues to show more drink the water, he keeps seeing stranger and more violent things - discussions of marketing the water, power plays, murder. Campbell is part of these visions. The line between reality and vision blurs for Eric and he becomes dependent on the water.

To complicate the issue, Campbell’s great-grandson Josiah is still in town and he is violent and angry with the world. Eventually Eric and Josiah clash. And, of course, innocent people get in the way – Eric’s wife Claire, an out of town psychologist Kellen Cage, and an elderly lady named Anne McKinney.

The characters are well written and believable. The story is well written and believable, too, if you believe in paranormal things like I do. I found it entirely plausible and just wouldn’t want to get in the way of Campbell Bradford.

The tension ratchets up throughout the entire book. As with any well written book of horror and terror, things keep on getting worse and worse. The violence escalates. How much is vision, how much is reality?

I particularly liked the descriptions of weather and the countryside. I learned a lot about tornadoes and clouds and could very easily see the places in the book. The writing is powerful and vivid and the pace is excellent. I did wonder some times why Eric did what he did, but didn’t let it stop me from enjoying the book.

I definitely recommend this book. show less

In this very creepy ghost story, Eric Shaw, a failed movie director who's settled for making videos for funerals and birthdays, is offered a job looking into the life of an elderly billionaire. Sent to the small town where the man grew up, Eric is also given a mysterious glass bottle of water, one the elderly man kept hidden from the family for most of his life. Curiousity drives Eric to try the water - once famed for curing all ills - and this tasting and his trip to Indiana sets in motion the release of the malevolent spirit of a man who terroized the small town in the 1920s and who shared the elderly billionaire's name.

Koryta's writing is great - the book is a thick one at 500 pages, but he quickly brings you into the story. While show more not exactly horror (I didn't have to sleep with the lights on, which is usually a good indicator of a terrifying story), but it is very unsettling and suspenseful. Clearly drawn characters, quickly moving plot, and a truly evil bad guy made this a great read.

Recommended! show less

Eric Shaw is a failed filmmaker who, rather than making the films in LA as he'd hoped and dreamed, is now making a living making family videos for the families of those who have passed. When he is approached by Alyssa Bradford, a wealthy young woman and promised a substantial amount of money to travel to French Lick, IN to research her father-in-law's history, Shaw cannot refuse. She describes her father-in-law, Campbell Bradford, as an extraordinary man who was extremely financially successful in his youth, despite the Depression.

Alyssa presents Shaw with a small bottle of water, the only evidence she has of her father-in-law's past. The bottle is full of Pluto Water, spring water from the famous mineral springs that flow around the show more West Baden Springs Resort. Eighty years ago, the water contained in that bottle was considered a cure-all for all life's ailments. That water alone brought people from all over to the West Baden Hotel and surrounding area.

The moment he arrives Shaw realizes something is amiss. When he mentions the name Campbell Bradford, the residents of French Lick insist the man is long dead. How is this possible, when Shaw himself met the man just days before his departure? He's also described as a horrible man, who ran away from the town, leaving a wife and child behind. "People were terrified of the man...thought he was evil."

When Shaw meets Kellen, a young college student researching the African-American history in the area, he learns of the murder of Shadrach Hunter, a black casino owner who was murdered shortly before Campbell's disappearance. Campbell was believed to be the killer. Kellen agrees to help Shaw in his hunt for the "true" Campbell Bradford.

Shaw, largely out of curiosity, takes a drink of the eighty year old spring water presented to him by Alyssa Bradford. He is instantly sickened by it's foul taste. After drinking the water, he begins to have visions, ominous and haunting snapshots of Campbell Bradford. He also begins to succumb to horrible headaches, the only way to alleviate them is to drink more of the ancient spring water, which now tastes sweet.

Anne, an elderly woman who has lived her entire life in that area, is key to Shaw's "investigation." Anne has quite the collection of Pluto Water and is able to provide Shaw with a bit of history that no one else can. Another vital part of the story: Anne's an expert on weather and storms; she keeps a daily record of barometric activity in the area. She begins to notice a significant change in the weather since Shaw's arrival; perhaps "the" storm she's been predicting will finally make an appearance. Anne has always been aware of something "different" in the area:

"I've always connected it more to the weather myself...there's something different in this valley...You can feel it in the wind now and again, and on the edge of a summer storm, or maybe just before ice comes down in the wintertime. There's something different. And charge is the best word for it. There's a charge, all right."

Shaw & Kellen soon realize that evil has returned to West Baden, evil buried decades ago. Rather than leave, Shaw feels he must get to the cause of this evil and find out more about the illusive Campbell Bradford.

Let me just start out with this: Koryta's writting is stunning! The pacing of this thrilling chiller is perfect, it starts out slow, slowly building with momentum, until it explodes at the end. I can't help but compare this to the storm that builds and builds and then unleashes it's wrath throughout the book. This storm is like a character itself...it slowly builds and progresses along with the storyline. The way Koryta describes it makes it appear humanlike:

"The mass above it was black and purple but the funnel cloud was stark white. It eased to the ground almost peacefully, as if settling down for a rest, and then its color began to change, the wite turning gray as it blew through the fields and gathered dirt, sucking soil and debris into its vortex."

The other characters, particularly Shaw himself, are very well laid out and organized. As the book progresses, we learn more about Shaw, his life, his history. Anne's character is an important one; she ties the present to the past.

All in all, I highly recommend this unique, chilling thriller! show less

From Amazon's Book Description:
It started with a beautiful woman and a challenge. As a gift for her husband, Alyssa Bradford approaches Eric Shaw to make a documentary about her father-in-law, Campbell Bradford, a 95-year-old billionaire whose past is wrapped in mystery. Eric grabs the job even though there are few clues to the man's past--just the name of his hometown and an antique water bottle he's kept his entire life.

In Bradford's hometown, Eric discovers an extraordinary history--a glorious domed hotel where movie stars, presidents, athletes, and mobsters once mingled, and hot springs whose miraculous mineral water cured everything from insomnia to malaria. Neglected for years, the resort has been restored to its former grandeur show more just in time for Eric's stay.

Just hours after his arrival, Eric experiences a frighteningly vivid vision. As the days pass, the frequency and intensity of his hallucinations increase and draw Eric deeper into the town's dark history. He discovers that something besides the hotel has been restored--a long-forgotten evil that will stop at nothing to regain its lost glory. Brilliantly imagined and terrifyingly real, So Cold the River is a tale of irresistible suspense with a racing, unstoppable current.

My Thoughts:

There are so many mystery, thriller, suspense, and similar books out there with fairly the same basic plot...a bad guy does something illegal, people try to find him, they locate him, lock him up and they all live happily ever after. This book isn't like that. Michael Koryta did a wonderful job of thinking up a new and interesting supernatural plot and delivered it beautifully without making it too unbelievable. A well deserved 5 stars. show less

Oh dear. I just didn’t like this book AT ALL. I know that many bloggers (including my beloved Sandy) are Koryta fans, but this book didn’t do anything for me. The basic story is that a troubled ex-filmmaker (whose Hollywood career is over and who now makes a living making memorial films for funerals) is hired to make a documentary about an eccentric old billionaire. Unlike most of his subjects, the only material he has to work with are a tiny bottle of water and the name of his subject’s hometown. located near French Lick, Indiana. When he travels to West Baden Resort (a real place … see Sandy’s post for more about it) to research his subject, strange things start to happen and long-buried secrets start to surface. I suspect show more that Koryta is trying to do Stephen King-type thing here, but it just didn’t work. To pull off a good horror story (especially one with supernatural elements), you have to scare the reader rather than make them roll their eyes. Sadly, I was rolling my eyes all over the place and almost quit reading several times. (The only reason I kept on was because I kept thinking “Surely this is going to get better at some point.”) Although part of the problem was that I read this book directly after the masterful Broken Harbor, I’m still not sure I would have liked this book even if I’d read it after something mediocre. show less

Okay, so before we go too much further SO COLD THE RIVER came with a media release that flagged it as, amongst other things an "explosive thriller" and "supernatural horror". Not exactly a recipe for my perfect book. Having said that, there have been plenty of reading examples in my recent past that make me aware that my "recipe" is a very fluid thing.

Eric Shaw is down and out. A disgraced movie maker, separated from his wife, he's in Chicago making "life portraits" for people on video - think weddings, parties, and funerals. During one of these funerals, Shaw is approached by Alyssa who wants him to make a documentary of the life of her father-in-law Campbell Bradford. The family knows very little about the billionaire head of the show more family, except that his hometown is West Baden in Indiana. Alyssa also hands over a very old bottle of Pluto Water which Campbell has held onto for many years, tying him to not just that small town, but a large part of its own history. This small, mysterious, smelly, murky water bottle is the key to Shaw going to West Baden and somewhere a whole lot stranger.

The language used in SO COLD THE RIVER was quite beautiful in places, the basic bones of story intriguing. An elderly, private man and what happened to him, and this small town over all those years. The author is also doing something that I really like with dialogue: it's crisp, pointed, realistic. There's also the sense of pace and suspense that you want from a first class thriller. They come with an extremely hefty dose of the supernatural, the paranormal. It is absolutely intrinsic to the way that the story unfolds and is told. Undoubtedly Michael Koryta is a very good writer, as I stayed with this book even as I found this increasingly alternative reality more and more unconvincing.

Unfortunately, the supernatural elements were simply laid on so thick that suspension of my disbelief would have required engineering greater than the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge. I'm also not sure I understand the inclusion of horror in the definitions, as there didn't seem to be many of the standard elements I expect with that genre - so if you're normally nervous of that, there's not a lot that should concern you about that.

Undoubtedly this is a book for readers with a higher tolerance for the supernatural elements being a core component of the story. Perhaps that's the difference between SO COLD IS THE RIVER and other books that I've read and enjoyed recently. The supernatural in SO COLD IS THE RIVER is an intrinsic part of the way that this story unfolds - there's no getting around it, there's no balancing of a fantasy and reality. To be fair there's no attempt, no pretence, an overt declaration that this fantastical series of events is the point of the book. Because of that it's most likely a book for people who really like fantasy, the fantastical.. the supernatural. It's likely to also be a book for dedicated fans of Michael Koryta's writing. For the rest of us, well I've not had the pleasure of reading any of Koryta's "straight" crime fiction but I'm going to have to rectify that. show less