I read the book when it first came out and really enjoyed it. As writer myself From the same neck of the woods as Koryta I'm a big fan of his atmospheric storytelling. I remember enjoying the book, great characters and engaging plot, not Koryta's best work but still enjoyable. About a year ago I was on a long road trip and decided to listen to the audio book on Audible. Much to my surprise I found myself hearing the story in a much different way than when I read it and actually enjoyed it even more.
Now the movie. I was really looking forward to the film version. I knew from the trailer that the main character Eric was changed to Erica and fellow historical investigator Kellen Cage turned into a female intern. Josiah Bradford's character was also drastically different than in the book and I'm not sure I liked the change to be honest. The movie certainly had some elements of the book, the hotel was a nice setting and the cinematography wasn't bad, the acting felt a bit phoned in. The major element missing from the movie was the sense of place the book had, the feeling of traveling back in time in Eric's (Erica's) and Josiah's mind just didn't translate well to the big screen. Unfortunately some books just don't translate well from written word to screen and unfortunately this may be one of them. It's possible if the movie was longer and more was included it could have come across better, unfortunately I think an hour and a half is just not long enough to tell a story with the amount of depth the book has.
