For Austin Fletcher, any place was paradise after Vietnam. Even the ancient house in the frozen Maine wilderness left to him by his slain buddy, Maynard Whittier. Even with the loneliness and the cold.

But this was a different kind of cold. It was worse than the cold of winter. It was even worse than the cold of death. It was the soul-chilling cold of an evil unimaginable, awakening after centuries to welcome him and make its terrible claim.

Excellent read, highly recommend if you enjoy haunted house type stories. Has a good sense of humor at moments and the next can make you jump out of your seat.

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It's really in the traditional ghost story genre, heavy with atmosphere, though the hero is atypical (Vietnam vet) and the story is definitely in a male voice. The burnt-out vet (likeable, and you do identify with him) travels up to back-country Maine in mid-winter to live in the cabin he has inherited from his war buddy, "Maynard." It turns out to be a very strange place. Extremely isolated, at first it seems he only has to worry about physical survival. The haunting or supernatural part is subtle and complex - I still haven't figured it all out, but it has to do not only with Marnard and the house but what happened hundreds of years before. Well written! There is a sequence with a hat, blown by the wind, that follows the hero home, scaring him very badly. That sort of thing is hard to write credibly - the author does just fine, I was definitely spooked. The ending is nightmarish. The sense of atmosphere is thick and prevailing, this is one of those books that is more a "place" than a story.

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