Ambrose Fountain

A lawyer uproots his wife and daughter from Los Angeles and buys a vineyard, where the former owners died in their beds from a gas leak. They struggle to raise their first crop of grapes, and nothing goes right. On a whim one evening, the husband tosses a coin into the old fountain that gives the property (and the book) its name. The next morning, a previously broken harvester starts up without a hitch. The husband, Carter, becomes obsessed with the fountain, convinced that by feeding it coins, he can turn his family’s fortunes around. He also becomes preoccupied with the former owner’s journals, reading them incessantly. At first his obsessions seem harmless, but soon several people who clashed with Carter go missing, and his wife begs him to stop feeding the fountain. Reader Bell has a wonderfully deep voice, which emphasizes the story’s spookiness. He is not afraid to sigh deeply or breathe heavily to show emotion. At the story’s over-the-top climax, Bell growls, whispers, shouts, and gives it his all. He’s an actor familiar with the horror genre and knows when to be calm, when to be fierce, when to stretch the suspension, and when to be light in tone. He squeezes everything out of the story. An Amazon/SL e-book. (Jan.)