The Keep

By F. Paul Wilson,

Book cover of The Keep

Book description

The Keep is the first book in the Adversary Cycle from bestselling author F. Paul Wilson and the basis for the 1983 cult classic horror film written and directed by Michael Mann.

"Something is murdering my men."

Thus reads the message received from a Nazi commander stationed in a small…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Keep as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This was one of the first horror novels I read, so it has almost a mystical hold on me. I returned to it quite a few times through the years turning my paperback edition into a dogeared mess.

It was the first time I read a story where the real world of politics and cruelty were tied to the immortal, the unliving, the monsters of our imagination. The mix of horror and the supernatural works in this book as well as anything I've read.

And the scene under the keep, the tunnels that kept me awake as a youngster, and…

A historical/horror crossover, this one. High in the Carpathian mountains in 1941, German soldiers are given the task of holding an ancient fort, the Keep of the title. Night after night, regardless of measures to protect themselves, the soldiers are picked off, one by one. In retaliation of what is thought to be partisan fighters doing the killing, SS Sturmbannfuhrer Eric Kaempfer is sent in with his death squad. They call in a Jewish professor and his daughter to decipher writing found by one of the dead bodies. Meanwhile, a stranger turns up who seems to know more about the…

From Richard's list on mixing horror with other genres.

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