One of the hundred books a year I read:

Eric Shaw’s filmmaking career crashed sending him into a spiral of depression threatening his marriage. Desperate to regain his footing, he agrees to a woman’s request to research her wealthy dying father’s history in a small town and to create a documentary. She has few clues to his early years, knowing only the name of his hometown and an ancient sealed bottle of water.

Eric arrives in the the town to discover its grand history as a playground for the rich and famous. The natural hot springs in the area promised healing capabilities. A grand hotel catered to their every need. But as the Depression the area, the hotel fell into disrepair and the town suffered.

In the present day, the hotel has been renovated and is once again open, making a perfect backdrop for the film. Unfortunately, Eric discovered his dying client couldn’t possibly be who he claimed, an evil and despised man who would be several years older, if he hadn’t disappeared around the same time the client left the town.

A sip of water from the sealed bottle produces hallucinations that makes Eric believe evil is coming to the town. At first he can control the visions, but he descends into a struggle to separate reality from fantasy.

Who is the dying client? What is his connection to man who disappeared decades earlier? What is causing Eric’s dreams? And is evil really coming to town?