The Vines by Christopher Rice

Synopsis: The dark history of Spring House, a beautifully restored plantation mansion on the outskirts of New Orleans, has long been forgotten. But something sinister lurks beneath the soil of the old estate.

After heiress and current owner Caitlin Chaisson is witness to her husband’s stunning betrayal at her birthday party, she tries to take her own life in the mansion’s cherished gazebo. Instead, the blood she spills awakens dark forces in the ground below. Chaos ensues and by morning her husband has vanished without a trace and his mistress has gone mad.

Nova, daughter to Spring House’s groundskeeper, has always suspected that something malevolent haunts the old place, and in the aftermath of the birthday party she enlists Caitlin’s estranged best friend, Blake, to help her get to the bottom of it. The pair soon realizes that the vengeance enacted by this sinister and otherworldly force comes at a terrible price.

Review: This is the first book I read by the author and it is true that the mix contained in the synopsis immediately attracted me. Yes mixing sinister forces, plantations and New Orleans could only give something perfect. Yet it is true that even if I had a good time overall, I have not really been carried away by the story and the characters.

Caitlin is a young rich woman, but money is not everything and that lady is very unhappy in her life. And that is not likely to get better when the day of her birthday, she discovers that her husband is cheating on her. Wanting to end her life, she wakes forces that should never have been disrupted. From this appears a sort of strange vine that seems desperate to fulfill the young woman’s desires of vengeance. But in this revenge against her husband who disappears without a trace, she could lose more than she thought.

We follow the course of the novel alternately with different characters and it’s true that I have not necessarily adhered to all the protagonists that we discover. By cons I loved following Nova who looks like us a little more. Different stories are also mixed here, first of, the Caitlin’s revenge over her husband, but also the murder of Blake’s boyfriend. It was quite touching to see this man trying to overcome his grief and ultimately discover what had really happened. But this is true that I had trouble with the story several times and it’s finally the end that appealed me the most and allowed me to enjoy a little more everything.

It was an interesting novel even if it is true that I have not been completely conquered. But I’m curious about something else by the author because the ideas here are very interesting and original. The end is still quite open, even if it has some sort of conclusion and I wonder if we will find out more later.