Maynard's House

Free house in the woods
every loner pervert's dream
bonus spooky tree.

A cryptic, creepy haunted shack in Maine with a protagonist so well constructed I felt like I knew him from page 1. Delves into memory and trauma in ways not unlike the early Silent Hill games. I read this in one or two great gulps while snowed in during the first winter storm of the season.

Maynard Whittier died in Vietnam and he left his cabin in Maine to his buddy Austin Fletcher. This is an oldy but goody that got reissued by Paperbacks from Hell and I was into this....until I wasn't.
My notes:
Austin has a death walk to town. The cabin has “noises”, the rocking chair creaks on its own, phantom dogs. There's a devil's rock out back and a witch tree on the property. Yes, please.
And then we meet the young girl and the story tanks into a pervy dream. Isolated men in cabins will be boys? Right? Gross.
Needed more witch.