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Maynard’s House by Herman Raucher

Signed (with a facsimile signature by Herman Raucher), Numbered, Limited Edition Hardcover – Centipede Press – Sept 2022 – 344 pages

Is déjà vu just an eerie happenstance or is it a reminder of a recessed past? For Austin Fletcher, an honorably discharged Vietnam veteran, the line between that truth and purported illusion is so blurred that differentiating between the two can be an exercise in futility. And revelations come at a premium.

Freshly landed in the U.S., Austin treks to the northern backcountry of Belden, Maine to honor his word and claim the house that his fallen brother Maynard Whittier willed to him. Austin is a young man dedicated to the wishes of his fellow comrades. Though, even he doesn’t understand why Maynard chose him. But Austin is a stubborn ox, and you can’t reason with a bull-headed soldier on a mission.

He arrives to find the quaint house fully stocked but buried in the frozen wilderness, far from the constraints of civilization. It’s the cozy cousin to the Overlook Hotel. And like the Overlook, Maynard’s home invites the same haunting past, giving credence to the notion that a home absorbs its occupants whether they’re willing participants or not.

His cozy days give way to colder nights. And the longer he stays, the more Austin finds himself manic and isolated, manifesting the same demons he thought he left behind in Vietnam. But with a house as alive as Maynard’s, Austin will soon find out that the demons he encounters are just as real as those of his own making.