Read @ Joe’s

Title: The House of Last Resort (2024) Author: Christopher Golden Publisher: St. Martin’s Press Book jacket: In The House of Last Resort, American couple Tommy and Kate Puglisi learn that their new home was owned for generations by the Church. But the real secret, and the true dread, is unlocked when they finally learn what the priests were doing in this house for all those long years… Joe says: The House of Last Resort is a perfect beach read. Until it isn’t. Then it becomes a race to the finish while ensuring every light is on in the house to chase away the shadows.

Christopher Golden is a master at exploring the human relationship placed within a tight, usually horrific, environment. His latest, The House of Last Resort (Jan 2024), is one part familial drama, one part haunted house escapade framed within a falling-into-eternal-sleep Sicilian village. Golden, as a special reward for his fans, even throws in an exorcism or two. The House of Last Resort is a perfect beach read. Until it isn’t. Then it becomes a race to the finish while ensuring every light is on in the house to chase away the shadows. 

But those remaining shadows? Golden knows how to hide things in them. 

Set in the winding cobblestones of an ancient Sicilian town with Mount Etna looming on the horizon like Mordor, newlyweds Kate and Tommy return to the Old World to seek a new life. The house they found is a fix-me-upper, but so is everything in Becchina. There, they quickly get accustomed to a more relaxed way of life full of espresso, gelato, and vino. And kudos to Golden for his own little Italian tourism pitch; I’m more-than-ready to return. However, the couple soon realizes that the Old World traditions of superstition and folklore are more tangible than those in America. Their house, for instance, has a haunted legacy of its own.

But that’s all the stuff of primeval legends and old housewives and elderly priests. Right? 

Golden hints and teases at what secrets their house holds. A nightmare here. A dusty apparition there. During it all, he comfortably builds up the characters of Tommy and Kate. Yes, they are young, impatient, and occasionally downright rude, but they are also interesting enough to become stars of their own tale. In doing so, they are elevated into becoming much more than mere – and overly cliche – fodder for when the killings start. And that anticipated action? Rest assured, it all kicks in as the earth rumbles. And then it kicks again as hell is unleashed. 

Golden’s balancing act between the common ordinary and the grotesque fantastical is not always level throughout his writings. The families of Parmenter Road in All Hallows and the archaeological teams in Ararat, for instance, quickly become grating and the action too tardy. Whereas in both Red Hands and Road of Bones, the human and the monstrous shared a memorable narrative space. Yes, the creepy action in The House of Last Resort does not get all spider-walky until the twilight of the pages. But that ending? 

Che bello! 

Grazie, Signore Golden. Encore!

---

And grazie to NetGalley and the fine team at St. Martin’s Press. I remain a Christopher Golden fan and am thankful to have received this advance reader’s copy. Ciao.