Fever House

A Novel

By: Keith Rosson

Narrated by: Xe Sands

“Exciting, suspenseful, horrifying, and written at a flurry-of-punches pace. Read Fever House now.”—STEPHEN KING

A small-time criminal. A has-been rock star. A shadowy government agency. And a severed hand whose dark powers threaten to destroy them all.

A WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

When leg-breaker Hutch Holtz rolls up to a rundown apartment complex in Portland, Oregon, to collect overdue drug money, a severed hand is the last thing he expects to find stashed in the client’s refrigerator. Hutch quickly realizes that the hand induces uncontrollable madness: Anyone in its proximity is overcome with a boundless compulsion for violence. Within hours, catastrophic forces are set into motion: Dark-op government agents who have been desperately hunting for the hand are on Hutch’s tail, more of the city’s residents fall under its brutal influence, and suddenly all of Portland stands at the precipice of disaster. . . .

But it’s all the same for Katherine Moriarty, a singer whose sudden fame and precipitous downfall were followed by the mysterious death of her estranged husband—suicide, allegedly. Her trauma has made her agoraphobic, shackled within the confines of her apartment. Her son, Nick, has moved home to care for her, quietly making his living working for Hutch’s boss.

When Hutch calls Nick in distress, looking for someone else to take the hand, Katherine and Nick are plunged into a global struggle that will decimate the walls of the carefully arranged life they’ve built. Mother and son must evade both crazed, bloodthirsty masses and deceitful government agents while exorcising family secrets that have risen from the dead—secrets, they soon discover, that might hold the very key to humanity’s survival.

Can you resist the hand? Find an excerpt from the next Fever House novel, The Devil by Name, at the end of the book.

©2023 Keith Rosson (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Fever House subverts the ordinary devices of occult-themed fantasy and keeps readers in suspense until the last page—and primed for the next book.”—The Wall Street Journal

“[A] whirlwind mystery . . . that hurls [Rosson’s] genre-slashing ambition into the stratosphere.”—NPR

“A modern-meets-classic horror story that keeps the stakes high until the very last sentence.”—San Francisco Chronicle

It’s like the first season of your new favorite show

Fun and fast paced story.

Loved the narration although sometimes harder to listen to in the car. But otherwise great and perfectly matched the story.

Look forward to the next book.

Hits like a loan shark!

Doesn’t let up. Not a wasted beat. Just an apocalyptic maelstrom of a story. We’re just left to pick up the carnage!

Good story Bad narration

The narrator really detracts from the story. The narrator’s voice makes it hard to follow the story. I had to delisted in many places because the words were garbled.

Great story but absolutely terrible ending. It's like he gave up

Literally the worst ending to any book I've ever read or listened to. It's a great story right up until the very end

So metal

I love Xe Sands as a narrator but her voice shines best with a female protagonist. The story was really fun! As a former PDX and LA resident, I enjoyed the geography, and as a former indie rock nerd, I enjoyed the music talk. Also, strangely, I went to high school with someone named Matt Coffin? Weird. Is this song about us?

Great book, problematic narrator

The book is as good as everyone says. Great writing, real page turner. The narrator is a problem, though. She has a very distinctive voice, but does not always enunciate well enough, and it was often more difficult than it should be to understand what she is saying.

Gruesome and Riveting

Top notch humanistic horror. Stellar storytelling. Colorful character development. Lurid tone and gritty drama. Quite an accomplishment. Loved it. Can't wait to experience more from the author and narrator.

Captivating

I was hooked and couldn’t stop reading Fever House. Amazing amazing amazing!!!!! One of my favorites

a mixed bag

The story is fairly solid, but they didn't stick the landing. The author could have gotten rid of maybe 2 or 3 hours worth of text in the middle and spent that time tying up loose ends or just developing the ending more. It's a super cool premise, it just needed more.

Meh.

The author is a decent prose stylist but the narrative is far too disjointed. Too many vital characters introduced too late and given far too little to do. By the end, I realized the author was just winging it and probably rushed the ending for a paycheck.

Narration is terrible. Spoken too softly and poor enunciation. Acting is okay.