The Supernatural Enhancements

by Edgar Cantero

Overview

A mesmerizing novel...what begins as a gothic ghost story soon evolves into a wickedly twisted treasure hunt in The Supernatural Enhancements, Edgar Cantero's wholly original, modern-day adventure.

When twentysomething A., the European relative of the Wells family, inherits a beautiful, yet eerie, estate set deep in the woods of Point Bless, Virginia, it comes as a surprise to everyone—including A. himself. After all, he never knew he had a "second cousin, twice removed" in America, much less that his eccentric relative had recently committed suicide by jumping out of the third floor bedroom window—at the same age and in the same way as his father had before him . . .

Together with A.’s companion, Niamh, a mute teenage punk girl from Ireland, they arrive in Virginia and quickly come to feel as if they have inherited much more than just a rambling home and an opulent lifestyle. Axton House is haunted... they know it...but the presence of a ghost is just the first of a series of disturbing secrets they slowly uncover. What led to the suicides? What became of the Axton House butler who fled shortly after his master died? What lurks in the garden maze – and what does the basement vault keep? Even more troubling, what of the rumors in town about a mysterious yearly gathering at Axton House on the night of the winter solstice?

Told vividly through a series of journal entries, cryptic ciphers, recovered security footage, and letters to a distant Aunt Liza, Edgar Cantero has written an absorbing, kinetic and highly original supernatural adventure with classic horror elements that introduces readers to a deviously sly and powerful new voice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780385538169
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/12/2014
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

EDGAR CANTERO is a writer and cartoonist from Barcelona working in Catalan, Spanish and English. He was born in 1981.

Interviews

A Conversation with Edgar Cantero, author of THE SUPERNATURAL ENHANCEMENTS

The Supernatural Enhancements begins as a ghost story in a classic haunted house, but we are very quickly swept up in a much larger, twisting international adventure tale. The novel bridges the gap between horror, suspense, and adventure in such a unique and entertaining way. What was the seed of the novel for you, and did you set out to pull all these worlds together?

Well, I don't plan ahead. At all. Especially in the case of TSE—I had no big vision on the first day. I wanted to do a haunted house story, so I began with the old dead-uncle, eerie-mansion routine. But then I needed a plot too. You know, I'm unprejudiced like A.; I'd accept a haunted house as it is; I wouldn't try to cleanse it or anything. So I brought in the Twenty, so my characters had something to deal with. And I guess it reads like an adventure because of A. and Niamh's playful approach to the whole thing. It all came naturally.

You were born in Barcelona and have published cartoons and novels in both Catalan and Spanish, but this is your first time publishing a novel in English. What inspired you to tell this story in English, and how did that change your experience?

Several reasons come to mind, but one's capital: I've fed on American/British entertainment all my life. Everything I create is heavily influenced by it, and I've found English is the natural language for it. I've felt frustrated at Catalan and Spanish before, because they lack the words, the gears to narrate action sequences at Tony-Scott-editing speed. And every book, every movie I wanted TSE to resemble was in English; English seemed the only option.

The novel is set (mostly) at an old gothic mansion in the fictional town of Point Bless, Virginia...and there is an arch undercurrent of American pop culture that is both biting and hilarious. What about this story demanded that you set it in the US, and how did you bring the setting to such life?

I can't remember why I placed Axton House in the US—let alone in Virginia. I guess it's where I'd like to have an eccentric and generous uncle myself. I love the US, or my Hollywood-distorted view of it. And that's the point: I've consumed such colossal quantities of American movies and TV, I felt easy trying to recreate that world. I don't mind if it doesn't look realistic (I've never set foot on Virginia); if it looks like a movie, it's okay.

An important element to the book is the non-traditional way in which the narrative unfolds. The reader is shown diary entries, surveillance video transcripts, letters, receipts, invoices, and other highly creative devices that are both integral to the story and also help augment the sense of secrecy and hidden meaning...while never breaking the magic of reading. What inspired you to design and structure the book unconventionally?

You'll think this is unbelievable, but again, I don't plan ahead. I guess I went through the first chapter using only a diary, a mute girl's notepad, and a letter, and I thought, "I wonder how far I can go like this." It became a challenge.
I think that's also why the main character's name is just "A.": I signed his letters with an initial because I couldn't bother to think of a good name at the moment, and maybe 90 pages into the book I said, "Can I get away with not giving him a name?"

What does "supernatural" mean to you?

"Interesting." Also, "fictional." That's sad, don't you think?

Who have you discovered lately?

I discover pretty much everyone I read, because I choose books by the cover, with zero clues about their authors. As for very good impressions lately... John Sladek

Editorial Reviews

The kinetic action of a graphic novel wrapped up in a literary thriller.”
     —The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg)

“A clever and engrossing horror-thriller mash-up that delivers genuine scares.”
    —Buffalo News

“A wonderful, enthralling book. . . . One of those rare literary creations that shortens the long hours of night. You emerge from its pages at sunrise, suddenly aware that you’ve spent the whole night reading. Few authors create such books. Edgar Cantero does it gracefully.”
    —Jason Mott, bestselling author of The Returned

“A spectacular debut novel. . . . Cantero’s fresh, original prose style and the steady flow of twists, turns, and code breaking will have mystery, thriller, and supernatural fans glued to their seats until they reach the electrifying conclusion.”
     —Library Journal (starred review)

“Eerie, puckish, and full of surprises. . . . Cantero pays homage to Bram Stoker and H. P. Lovecraft and The Shining, but he’s no less enamored of The X-Files, fax machines, and punk girls with dreads. The result is a propulsive, beguiling novel that is as easy to get swept up in as it is hard to describe.”
     —Justin Taylor, author of Flings

“Quirky in presentation and good fun throughout, Cantero’s yarn pleases at every turn.”
     —Kirkus Reviews

“A fun and addictive read.”
     —LitReactor

“Cantero sets the novel up to be one type of mystery and then he lets other mysteries float into the story. It’s not that he invalidates earlier mysteries . . . but rather he makes them no longer as important because this next one is crazy!” 
     —Raging Biblioholism
 

From the Publisher

2014-07-01
Southern gothic meets Euro hipnessin Catalan novelist Cantero's inventive, enjoyable outing in postmodern mysterywriting.Take a mysterious mansion, "plus anoseless suspect, a dead criminal wanted in six states, one fugitive, a missinglawyer, seventeen people in the morgue, two in surgery, and lots of paperwork,"and you've got the makings of a scenario that's surely good for setting tongueswagging in small-town Virginia. Yet most of the good citizens of Point Blesshave long been unaware of the goings-on at the Wells mansion, where the ghostsof suicides wander among dark corridors and hidden rooms. Cantero lets us knowat the outset that we're in on a very long joke, with winkingthrough-the-fourth-wall asides ("I've noticed that all manuscripts are bad; anybook randomly opened in a friend's house is good; the same book in a bookstoreis bad. When this story is completed, that beginning will turn better"). Anystory that features a lawyer named Glew and a butler named Strückner isautomatically promising, never mind hesitant openings, and our protagonist'ssidekick is a welcome force of nature, a mute Irish girl who is both amanuensisand ninja. And if that protagonist starts off the proceedings wide-eyed and naïve, delighted by such small things as rural cafes with "manysauce bottles and thingies against the glass," he emerges as a capable playerin a game of poltergeists, hollowed-out books, malevolent masterminds andsundry secrets in a setting that wanders between real and dream worlds,alternate realities blending with elective affinities.Freemasonry, of course, figures intothe equation. Quirky in presentation and good fun throughout, Cantero's yarnpleases at every turn.

Kirkus Reviews