Cypress
n. 1. Any of various evergreen trees or shrubs of the genus Cupressus, native to Eurasia and North America and having opposite, scale-like leaves and globose woody cones.
2. Cypess branches used as a symbol of mourning.
Arlen Wagner is surrounded by death. Just a wisp of smoke in the eyes and he knows, as if seeing so many die during the war wasn’t enough. The soldiers’ train moves south towards the Civilian Conservation Corps camp in the Florida Keys, but there is smoke in their eyes. Arlen can’t stay onboard. He and young Paul Brickhill set off on foot, catching a ride with a bootlegger looking for a little luck. It’s too bad they meet, because Arlen’s need for a little luck leads poor Arlen and Paul astray to a shanty of a fishing resort along the Gulf Coast, more of an abandoned shack than any sort of motel. It’s here that the great depression truly has taken its toll, leaving young, beautiful Rebecca Cady alone to care for what remains of the Cypress House. It’s a place of mourning. A coffin. A grave. The place where Cady’s father died in a “boating” accident. Or was murdered. The place from which her young brother was taken to rot in the local penitentiary. It’s a place where bad things happen. Arlen and Paul quickly find themselves trapped in the middle of a small-town viper’s nest where corruption is the norm and justice can only be found when the law is taken into their own hands. Arlen will not only have to kill to stay alive, but face his own inner demons and the supernatural secret he would rather no one know. The Cypress House is a dark, suspenseful mystery with complex characters and a dialogue-driven plot that invokes the storytelling of both Michael Connelly and Stephen King.