The Cursed Man

Keith Rommel

Average Rating 9/10 (2 Reviews)

Alister Kunkle believes death is in love with him. A simple smile from friend or stranger is all it takes to encourage death to kill.

With his family deceased and a path of destruction behind him, Alister sits inside a mental institution, sworn to silence and separated from the rest of the world, haunted by his inability to escape death's preferential treatment.

But when a beautiful psychologist arrives at the institution and starts offering him care, Alister braces himself for more killings. When none follow, he tries to figure out whether he truly is insane or if death has finally come to him in the form of a woman.

The Cursed Man is book one in the Thanatology Series. The Lurking Man is the next book in this series.

Review by Paul Lappen (311211) Rating (9/10)
Review by Nigel (310311) Rating (9/10)

Review by Paul Lappen
Rating 9/10
First of a series, this book is about a man who believes that Death has taken an unnatural interest in him, killing everyone with whom he comes in contact. Can he really be cursed, or is he just mentally ill?

Alister Kunkle is a patient at the Sunnyside Capable Care Mental Institution. For the past 25 years, he has been secluded from the staff, and the outside world, at his own request. He is convinced that anyone who communicates with him, in any way, is dead within a day, for Alister is Cursed.

His first exposure to death came when he was a child, and he attended the funeral of a beloved aunt. As a married man, Alister became convinced that Death had cursed him when he came home to find his wife and child dead. He rushed into the street, and laid down in the middle of the road, hoping that someone will put him out of his misery. A driver narrowly misses him, and rushes to Alister's aid, to see if he is alright. The driver suddenly keels over, dead from a heart attack. Taken to Sunnyside in an ambulance, Alister distinctly remembers a number of staff members, including big, muscular orderlies used to mental patients, dropping like flies. Looking out the window of his room, Alister sees a dry, desiccated landscape full of dead plants.

A psychiatrist named Anna Lee comes to the Institution, demanding to see Alister. The Director does his best to dissuade her, telling her about Alister's "situation," and showing her news articles as proof. She is not to be denied, so she enters Alister's room, talks with him for a while, then leaves, saying that she will be back the next day. Lo and behold, she returns the next day; she is not dead. Moving one step at a time, she takes Alister outside. The grounds are green and lush, not brown, dry and lifeless. She tells Alister that he is mentally ill, and not cursed. The beloved aunt, whose funeral Alister distinctly remembers, died several years before he was born. The mass deaths at the Institution on Alister's arrival never happened. Dr. Lee reveals that she is not exactly who she says she is. Then things get weird.

This is a very well-written book, with a little bit of Stephen King-like horror. It will keep the reader interested, and it is a gem of a story.
Paul Lappen (31st December 2011)

Review by Nigel
Rating 9/10
The Cursed Man by Keith Rommel tells the story of Alister Kunkle, a patient at Sunnyside Capable Care Mental Institution. Alister has been in seclusion for the last 25 years having no contact with the staff or the outside world… the reason for this is that anyone who communicates with Alister dies within the day, for he is the Cursed Man and Death takes a professional interest in those unlucky enough to cross his path.

Believing him simply deranged Dr Anna Lee, an up and coming young psychiatrist, has come to cure Alister. She is warned about Alister's past and is shown evidence of previous encounters made by the sceptical or unbelieving, all of whom died, sometimes horribly. Regardless of the stories Anna will not be dissuaded and is reluctantly allowed access to Alister. All assume her fate is sealed but when she returns unharmed the next day we also start to wonder about the stories.

So begins an enthralling narrative told in the past and the present as Anna attempts to learn why Alister believes he is cursed, while at the same time trying to convince him the events were not real and that in fact he is merely ill and so can be cured.

The Cursed Man is an extremely well written suspense horror story and I enjoyed it immensely; right up until the very end I was never sure and kept swinging back and forth… is Alister truly followed by death or is he simply mentally ill? You will need to read the book to find out.

The Cursed Man is not a particularly long novel at 224 pages (we read a proof so the finished book may be more) but it is never-the-less an accomplished work. I have enjoyed Keith Rommel's previous novels and this latest does not disappoint. Great story telling in the tradition of Stephen King… I very much look forward to the next book in the series..
Nigel (31st March 2011)