Apricot Brandy is written in an interesting style, with great descriptions of Karen Fox's return to the house of her childhood after the death of her father. As she wanders around the house, visiting her father's fruit trees from which he made his famous apricot brandy, she finds herself being drawn into a strange evil. When her lover, Susan, arrives to visit, the evil gets more teeth and things start getting harder for Karen.
Interspersed with this story is that of two
local people, the sheriff and the medical examiner, who are trying to bring back
to life an ancient god called Xibalba. As Karen tries to come to terms with her difficult past in her father's house, samples his homemade brew and finds herself allied with an ex-con, a Guatemalan witch and and army of ghosts, the story moves in unexpected directions.
Cesar's writing is beautifully crafted and the characters and situations are definitely different from the norm. However, I found this book extremely difficult to get into; I didn't find myself that interested in what would happen next, and I found it hard to relate to any of the characters. It took me a considerable while to read as I couldn't really engage with it, and for that reason I have awarded it only two stars. It's a very different sort of fantasy which will appeal to some readers, but it's not an easy read.