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Description edit
Arlen Wagner has an awful gift: he can see death in the eyes of men before it strikes. He's never wrong. So when Arlen awakens on a train one hot Florida night and sees death's telltale sign in the eyes of his fellow passengers, he tries to warn them. Only 19-year-old Paul Brickhill believes... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters/People edit
- Arlen Wagner: Veteran of World War I, has a gift - he is able to see death before it comes to people. Arlen is on a train bound for the Florida Keys when the story opens.
- Paul Brickhill: Naive, very young, and clearly escaping from an unhappy home, gentle, serious Paul has been working for the CCC. His natural gift for engineering and mechanics catches the eye of his CCC manager, Arlen, who befriends him and eventually becomes like a father to him.
- Rebecca Cady: Owner and sole occupant of the Cypress House in Corridor County, Florida.
- Solomon Wade: Solomon is the perfect noir bad guy; untouchable, above the fray, but a purely evil, malevolent, corrupting force. He is a cog in a bigger crime machine, but master of the small town he has invaded and made his own.
- Owen Cady: Rebecca's brother, in state prison.
- Tolliver: Sheriff of Corridor County, Florida, a transplant from Cleveland.
- Walter Sorenson: Owner of the Auburn who offers to drive Arlen and Paul to the boarding house after they leave the train.
- Thomas Barrett: Local shop owner, repairman, and delivery service in High Town. His store has the closest phone to the Cypress House.
- Tate McGrath: A greasy, vicious minion, Tate McGrath does his boss's dirty work single-mindedly, making violence and murder into a family business by involving his grown sons in the beatings, kidnappings, and killings of his employers' enemies.
- Edwin Main: A character from Arlen's past.
- Isaac Wagner: Arlen's father, a furniture maker and coffin builder, Isaac is a kind and moral man who sees life as merely one step in a far grander journey.
- Wallace O'Connell: Add a description of this character.
- Davey McGrath: Eldest living son of Tate McGrath, Davey is as cold-blooded, merciless, and deadly as the water moccasins that inhabit the swamp in which he lives.
- Gwen
- David Franklin
Quotes edit
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“Her "guests" had arrived in three vehicles that came in succession, like the funeral procession of an unpopular man.”
- Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
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Was a time when, if you knew how to work metal, you’d set up a blacksmith shop and make enough to support your family. Now, if you knew how to work metal, you’d likely need a job in a factory where the needs of not a town but a state, a nation, a world, had to be met. It was all about size now: the big ran the world on the sweat of the small, and if the big faltered for any reason, the small were the first to go.
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Love is a powerful thing, and like all powerful things, it can be used to harm,
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You kept your head down and you weathered what this life brought you and believed it would pass.
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you couldn’t depend solely on yourself anymore. Not in the way men once had.
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to call her an ugly woman would be an offense to the word — woman or ugly.
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This world isn’t anything but a sojourn, to be sure, but death removes every trace unless you’ve taken pains to leave one behind.
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They’re only dead to people like you, Arlen. Truth is they’re carrying on, bound to a place where you can’t yet follow. This life is but a sojourn.
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You just take the days as they come and keep your mind open, hear? That’s all you have to do. All you can. Don’t always try to be the smartest fella in the room, all right? Because in the end, even the smartest of us don’t know much at all.
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A man never did get as much say in this life as he wanted to have, as he’d expected he would when he was young. No, you took what was offered and you handled it best as you could.
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branches of the trees themselves were symbols of death
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Authors & Contributors edit
- Michael Koryta (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: Add the language.
Publisher: Add the publisher.
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: 2011
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 426
Publisher: Add the publisher.
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: 2011
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 426
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 813.6
Subjects edit
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