Keith Rosson – Fever House (2023) // The Devil By Name (2024) – (Kult-Zilla Review)

Keith Rosson is an American author hailing from Portland, Oregan, who came to prominence with the release of a handful of books including the novel Smoke City, as well as the short-story collection Folk Songs For Trauma Surgeons – on indie-publishers Meerkat Press. When he was querying an early draft of Fever House, the novel was soon snapped up by Penguin Random House, and their ideas for the book included a re-write with an extra 30,000 words, as well as a sequel – with the publishers signing him to a two book deal that would allow him to complete this darkly twisted Duology.

Fever House was published in the summer of 2023, and its intriguing blend of viscerally descriptive Horror, with crime fiction, government conspiracies and all set within the post-apocalyptic genre – provided the catalyst for a thoroughly intriguing tale of epic proportions – that found a fanbase in the Horror community, while also receiving plaudits from a number of influential writers, including none other than the master himself – Stephen King. As well as his son, the renowned fantasy novelist and comic book writer Joe Hill (Heart Shaped Box / NOS4A2).

Fever House opens with a scene that feels like it takes inspiration from Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, as we join two enforcers working an evening of collecting debts for their mob-boss. They quickly get more than they bargained for, as Rosson lays his cards on the table by introducing an early supernatural element, as they come across a severed hand in the home of one of their targets. A severed hand which soon starts to influence their minds, subliminally providing them with thoughts of darkness and violence. The hand provides the novel’s hook, and the catalyst for the eerie and intoxicating mystery of the story.

In the possession of the two criminals, the hand begins a journey which unleashes it out into the city. And we soon come to realise that it is a deadly remnant that had become lost to a shady government organisation, who’s agents will stop at nothing to recapture its possession. The team follow leads provided to them by a strange and mysterious being they hold captive – very reminiscent of of the cognitive mutants in Philip K.Dick’s Minority Report. Soon the reader is taken on a frenetic journey as the hand passes from person to person, with Rosson writing at one hell of a pace and introducing new character after character – sometimes killing or seriously maiming one just as your getting to know them.

We get events delivered from different prospectives, while the timeline of the narrative often jumps around – but Rosson holds it all together like a true master of the craft. What is especially impressive as the story unfolds, is the depth he is able to provide for each back-story of his major characters, often simple yet highly effective story telling that richly develops each player for the reader. And when the layers do become more complex, he offers deep and captivating side-plots that the keep the reader thoroughly engaged. He also has an impressive knack of flicking a switch in a scene without warning, often leading you into a false sense of security as two characters calmly converse – before suddenly taking a 180 turn as they are attacked out of nowhere.

We discover that the severed hand is not the only mystical remnant at play, and Rosson is able to weave an intriguing web of mystery that is often beautifully dark and eerie, with sporadic descriptions of debilitating violence, as the author showcases his knack for writing gut-wrenching scenes of gore. As the story develops and we head towards the climax where the madness begins to well and truly unfold, Fever House seemingly begins to take influence from the likes of The Walking Dead, as well as James Herbert’s The Fog. While Rosson leads us to an exciting finalé as he provides a set of highly satisfying answers to his weaved conundrum, while also leaving us on somewhat of a cliffhanger … just as the shit really hits the fan!

The Devil By Name (released in the Autumn of 2024) picks up the events five years on from the end of Fever House, where we rejoin the surviving characters as they navigate this new world – while also discovering the fate of others. Rosson provides us with a number of key new characters, continuing to dive deep into their back-stories, ensuring the reader becomes engaged and really cares about their place in this apocalyptic future. The severed hand also still very much plays a part in the story, as its current owner keeps it hidden and uses its powers like a drug – just about managing to keep their head above water like a functioning addict.

The world of this future is built masterfully by Rosson. We really begin to understand what it must take to survive in this god forsaken hellhole, where survivors live among the Fevered. And The Walking Dead comparison is again an obvious one. Along with the The Last Of Us and a couple of Stephen King books, most notably Cell and The Stand – with the latter itself indeed paid tribute to with a name drop in The Devil By Name. The supernatural element of the story is enhanced in this sequel, and one new character in particular comes with a power which again could well have come from the pen of King, when you look back and consider early novels of his such as Carrie, Firestarter and The Dead Zone.

But Rosson is certainly no rip-off merchant, and delivers the story in his own style, placing many unique and fresh ideas into this tried and tested genre. He shows he can convey the heart-warming as well as the gut-wrenching in places, especially with the story of one particular character we warmed to in Fever House, when we discover the lengths they will go to in order to try and hold onto the past. And speaking of the past, we are provided with more history to the key characters who influenced the events of Fever House, finally fully understanding the reasons why and how this particular apocalypse has occurred. While also providing further supernatural ideologies, alongside some thoroughly despicable characters.

But there is also a light in The Devil By Name, and it works towards a semblance of hope in this seemingly hopeless new world. While Rosson also manages to counter balance this by writing some of the very darkest and most visceral content across the two books. This a Duology of novels which comes highly recommended, and should put Keith Rosson’s name in among the likes of Paul G. Tremblay and Josh Malerman when you think of the leading contemporay Horror authors writing today. And although The Devil By Name certainly wraps things up nicely, it also ends on a note which leaves you wondering just what might come next, for the final surviving characters. KZ

9/10

Words by Mark Bates

Kult-Zilla’s – Essential Horror Books – 2024!