The House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden

 

Across Italy there are many half-empty towns, nearly abandoned by those who migrate to the coast or to cities. The beautiful, crumbling hilltop town of Becchina is among them, but its mayor has taken drastic measures to rebuild—selling abandoned homes to anyone in the world for a single Euro, as long as the buyer promises to live there for at least five years. It’s a no-brainer for American couple Tommy and Kate Puglisi. Both work remotely, and Becchina is the home of Tommy’s grandparents, his closest living relatives. It feels like a romantic adventure, an opportunity the young couple would be crazy not to seize. But from the moment they move in, they both feel a shadow has fallen on them. Tommy’s grandmother is furious, even a little frightened, when she realizes which house they’ve bought. There are rooms in an annex at the back of the house that they didn’t know were there. The place makes strange noises at night, locked doors are suddenly open, and when they go to a family gathering, they’re certain people are whispering about them, and about their house, which one neighbor refers to as The House of Last Resort. Soon, they learn that the 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…and how many people died in the strange chapel inside. While down in the catacombs beneath Becchina…something stirs.

This is in part, a love story between Tommy and Kate, a mystery of what caused the rift between Tommy's father and grandfather, and the unraveling of dark family secrets.

Tommy and Kate seize an opportunity to own a beautiful house in Italy for practically no money. All they have to do is fix it up. It's a huge change for them from living in the United States, but Tommy has family there and they hope with a little time and effort they can convince some of their friends to follow in their footsteps to revive the economy in the half empty town.

When Tommy's grandmother sees which home they've chosen she is angry and fearful but won't say why.

Bumps in the night and slamming doors lead the couple to entertain the idea that their house may be haunted, but it took longer than I would have liked for the reveal of why their home is known as the House of Last Resort.

The pace was slow for the first part of the book. There were some odd occurrences but nothing really scary happened until close to the halfway mark when a shocking event led to the exposure of family secrets, Something happened at this point that just plain scared the bejeezers out of me.

The final third of the book is terrifying and the conclusion is a knock out.

My thanks to St. Martin's Press.

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