So Cold the River
Michael Koryta, 2010
Little, Brown & Company
508 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316053648
Summary
It started with a documentary. The beautiful Alyssa Bradford approaches Eric Shaw to unearth the life story of her father-in-law, Campbell Bradford, a 95-year-old billionaire whose childhood is wrapped in mystery. Eric grabs the job, even though the only clues to Bradford's past are his hometown and an antique water bottle he's kept his entire life.
In Bradford's hometown, Eric discovers an extraordinary past—a glorious domed hotel where movie stars, presidents, athletes, and mobsters once intermingled. Long derelict, the hotel has just been restored to its former grandeur.
But something else has been restored too—a long-forgotten evil that will stop at nothing to settle a decades-old score. And with every move, Eric inches closer to the center of the building storm. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 1, 1982
• Where—Bloomington, Indiana, USA
• Education—B.A., Indiana University
• Awards—Best First Private Eye Novel from Private
Eye Writers of America/St. Martin's Press
• Currently—lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, and
Bloomington, Indiana
Michael Koryta (kor REE ta) is an American author of contemporary crime and mystery fiction. He is known for novels such as Tonight I Said Goodbye, Sorrow's Anthem, A Welcome Grave and The Silent Hour (The Lincoln Perry Series).
Koryta has received many awards, including the 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and his book Envy the Night has also been chosen for the 2009 Reader's Digest Select Editions. A former private investigator and newspaper reporter, Koryta graduated from Indiana University with a degree in criminal justice
Michael Koryta began writing at a very early age: At the age of 8, he began corresponding with his favorite writers. At 16, he decided he wanted to be a crime novelist—and later in high school started interning with a private investigator. When his crime novel Tonight I Said Goodbye won the St. Martin's Press/Private Eye Writers of America Best First Novel prize, he had yet to reach legal drinking age.
He currently lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Bloomington, Indiana. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
As plot hooks for suspense tales go, haunted water is certainly unexpected. Mr. Koryta decided to use it for a very specific reason. His inspiration for So Cold the River comes from its spectacular setting: the grand old West Baden Springs Hotel in rural Indiana. As a Hoosier with a keen sense of the hotel's history, Mr. Koryta has worked backward to concoct an eerie narrative and used the place for the basis of his own personal version of The Shining.
Janet Maslin - New York Times
A super-natural mystery that intensifies the suspense by thickening the atmosphere. So Cold the River…is a superior specimen, with its eerie tale of a lovely valley in Indiana where at one time an elixir known as Pluto Water bubbled up from the underground springs...Koryta sets a beautiful scene.
Marilyn Stasio - New York Times Book Review
So Cold the River takes a while to build up momentum, but the material is so fresh and the characters so appealing that my interest never flagged. After reading it, I'm sticking to good old D.C. tap water.
Dennis Drabelle - Washington Post
In this explosive thriller from Koryta (Envy the Night), failed filmmaker Eric Shaw is eking out a living making family home videos when a client offers him big bucks to travel to the resort town of West Baden, Ind., the childhood home of her father-in-law, Campbell Bradford, to shoot a video history of his life. Almost immediately, things go weird. Eric uncovers evidence of another Campbell Bradford, a petty tyrant who lived a generation before the other and terrorized the locals. The older Campbell begins appearing in horrific visions to Eric after he sips the peculiar mineral water that made West Baden famous. Koryta spins a spellbinding tale of an unholy lust for power that reaches from beyond the grave and suspends disbelief through the believable interactions of fully developed characters. A cataclysmic finale will put readers in mind of some of the best recent works of supernatural horror, among which this book ranks.
Publishers Weekly
Edgar Award nominee Koryta breaks from his Lincoln Perry PI series with this work of dark, supernatural horror that demonstrates the quality writing style and well-developed characters for which he is known. Down-and-out filmmaker Eric Shaw agrees to produce a biopic of an elderly billionaire from West Baden Springs, IN. While there, a bottle of "Pluto" water enhances Shaw's psychic abilities as he becomes increasingly caught up in the mystery surrounding his subject's family, in West Baden history, and in the water's source and powers. Actor/Audie Award nominee Robert Petkoff (robertpetkoff.com) renders Eric's visions and descendant Josiah Campbell's ruthless pursuit of fortune with veridical insight. Highly recommended for all audiences. —Sandy Glover, Camas P.L., WA
Library Journal
A gothic horror story set in-wait for it-rural Indiana. Filmmaker Eric Shaw, reduced to preparing video montages for memorial services since the failure of his Los Angeles career caused him to retreat to Chicago and leave his marriage to Claire, is approached by wealthy Alyssa Bradford, who offers him $15,000 to re-create the life of her father-in-law, Campbell, 95 and near death in a nursing home. The only clue to his past is a green glass bottle, still stoppered, that he's kept in his safe-a bottle of something called Pluto Water from some hidden spring between the twin towns of French Lick and West Baden, Ind. Quicker than Stephen King conjures goosebumps, Shaw finds himself hearing train whistles, having visions of an old gent in a bowler hat and suffering world-class headaches. Kellen Cage, a black student working on a doctoral thesis concerning French Lick and West Baden, offers some help. Meanwhile, the last Bradford, ne'er-do-well Josiah, hopes that the video may bring him money. The weather turns ominous. Shaw's headaches worsen. His scary visions continue. Would a sip of that reputed elixir, Pluto Water, help? As the visions intensify, Josiah turns more menacing, killing with no provocation a private eye sent from Chicago to stop Shaw. Old Anne, a weather spotter, senses that the wind is up. Shaw becomes obsessed with finding out more about Pluto Water. But four tornados will hit the county within an hour, the Lost River will rise and a major conflagration will almost annihilate Claire before the Campbell past is bottled up tight once more. A departure from Kortya's Lincoln Perry p.i. series (The Silent Hour, 2009) that's every bit as well-written.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. So Cold the River begins with the line “You looked for the artifacts of their ambition.” What are some examples of such artifacts in the book? Discuss what they reveal about the characters. Do you think that ambition manifests itself differently than other drives? How and why?
2. The first time that Eric Shaw sees the dome of the West Baden Hotel, he is filled with wonder. Have you ever had a similar reaction to a building or place? What was it about the sight that most strongly affected you?
3. On page 134, Anne McKinney thinks to herself, “Rare was the storyteller who got trapped by reality.” Do you think that writers have a responsibility to faithfully represent events as they actually happened? Why or why not? Do you hold writers of fiction to a different standard than you do writers of nonfiction?
4. Discuss Josiah Bradford. Do you think he is in control of his fate, or is he stuck on a predetermined path? Why or why not? Have there been times in your own life when you have felt like you have no control? When?
5. How does ego drive each of the characters? What are the differences between Eric’s, Campbell’s, and Josiah’s vanity?
6. Eric begins to have trouble distinguishing his visions from reality. Have you ever had a dream that was so vivid, you were certain that it was real? Why do you think it affected you so strongly?
7. How do you feel about Eric’s relationship with Claire? Why do you believe their marriage fell apart? What do you think will happen in the future?
8. As one of the oldest people in the two towns, Anne McKinney is a repository of historical information. As a self-taught meteorologist, she also looks toward the future. Can you reconcile these two different outlooks? How does history inform her predictions? What is her role in the story?
9. What do you think about Josiah and Danny’s relationship? Why do you think they are friends? Have you ever had an unequal friendship? Did you do anything to balance it?
10. Discuss the confrontation of perception and objective reality in the novel. When does the line between the two become unclear? Which do you think is more reliable: what one personally experiences or what is recorded or observed by the world?
11. What are the differences in the ways that Josiah and Eric experience their visions? Why do you think these visions occur?
12. Do you think that So Cold the River has a message about revenge or ambition? If so, what do you think it is? If not, why?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
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