One of the Best Books of 2016: Michael Connelly, New York Times Book Review, Kirkus Reviews
"A superb thriller literally humming and buzzing with power and tension, given depth and resonance by Koryta's fascination with pitting lone human emotion against a vast and forbidding landscape."—Lee Child
"This book arrived with high praise from several stars of the genre—"A master," says Stephen King; "Outstanding," adds Lee Child—and they're right. Rise the Dark is both first-rate entertainment and an unusually interesting thriller in terms of its characters, its plot and the ideas it explores, which include the electrical grid, Tesla's history, spiritualism, and the nation's possible vulnerability to a right-wing takeover."—Washington Post
"Among his many gifts, Michael Koryta is a virtuoso in his use of outdoor settings... his thrillers present the great outdoors in their most frightening aspects. The book's atmospheric power and strong cast of supporting characters make Rise the Dark compelling from the get-go."—Chicago Tribune
"Welcome to Michael Koryta's latest nightmare.... Wonderfully eerie scenes... [and] distinct thrills." —Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review
"Koryta always uses setting to great effect in his bestselling thrillers... In Rise The Dark, Koryta again constructs a hold-your-breath thriller around believable characters and the bonds, familial and romantic and ideological, that bind them. It's a wild ride."—Tampa Bay Times
"Koryta has a gift for terrific suspense that immerses the reader while also delivering prose that almost reads like poetry....[A] road that should definitely be traveled."—Associated Press
"For fans of darker mystery and suspense, you won't be disappointed."—Marion Star
"A frightening thriller about the holes in our infrastructure and the security protecting it. In this second Markus Novak novel, following 2015's Last Words, Koryta effectively combines a compelling premise, a villain who seems too smart to be stopped, and a revealing look at the hero's dysfunctional family."—Booklist
"As with his spellbinding 2014 effort, Those Who Wish Me Dead, Koryta employs the desolate Montana setting with such mastery and deep sense of mystery that it's a compelling character itself. And with an intriguing cody that reverberates with themes of family, myth, and psychic possibility, this new novel leaves us keenly anticipating the next installment of the Novak saga. Again proving himself one of today's top thriller writers, Koryta creates edgy suspense not with trickery but with characters who test the limits of their courage."—Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
"[With] a compelling narrative, relatable characters, and action scenes that play out like a blockbuster film, Koryta has written his best book to date. Highly recommended for fans of the author and readers of Dan Brown and Dennis Lehane."—Library Journal (starred review)
"Michael Koryta has done a fine job with Rise The Dark as he presents his most suspenseful novel since the terrific Those Who Wish Me Dead. At times his writing has toed the line between suspense and the supernatural. This is a thriller of the highest caliber that will dare readers to put it down before reaching the exciting climax."—BookReporter
"Michael Koryta is very creative in his creation of characters, but he is even more successful in his establishment of place." —Huffington Post
"Rise The Dark is a powerfully written and fast moving novel...a perfect end of summer read."—LitReactor
06/06/2016
Two main narrative strands propel bestseller Koryta’s pulse-pounding sequel to 2015’s Last Words. When the electricity fails one snowy night, Jay Baldwin, a power-company foreman, leaves his Red Lodge, Mont., home to investigate. He later phones his wife, Sabrina, to report that someone has cut trees so that they have fallen onto power lines. Back at the house, Sabrina is confronted by an armed intruder, Garland Webb, who takes her hostage for an unknown reason. Webb, who was just released from prison for sexual assault, is the quarry of PI Markus Novak, who suspects Webb of murdering the detective’s wife, Lauren, in Cassadaga, Fla. Before Webb left prison, he arranged for a fellow prisoner to call Markus and taunt him—which only strengthens the widower’s resolve to bring Webb to justice and to figure out a cryptic phrase, “Rise the dark,” which Lauren wrote in a notebook right before her death. The villains may be cartoonish, but the dramatic conclusion does justice to the suspenseful setups. Author tour. Agent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management. (Aug.)
★ 08/01/2016
When former private investigator Markus Novak, introduced in Last Words, learns that Garland Webb, the man who confessed to murdering his wife, was released from prison, his new purpose in life is to find and kill Webb. He starts in the small Florida town where his wife died; strange events and a violent encounter there lead him to Montana. Meanwhile, Webb, now in the employ of a mysterious man named Eli Pate, has kidnapped the wife of a high-voltage line worker so that her husband, Jay, will be compelled to help complete Pate's scheme of destroying Montana's electrical grid. Markus finds much more than he expects upon arrival in Big Sky country, and danger is more palpable than ever. Following his traditional format of short, fast-paced chapters, a compelling narrative, relatable characters, and action scenes that play out like a blockbuster film, Koryta has written his best book to date. VERDICT Highly recommended for fans of the author and readers of Dan Brown and Dennis Lehane. [See Prepub Alert, 2/29/16.]—Jason L. Steagall, Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI
★ 2016-05-31
Having escaped certain death in Indiana's scariest caves in Last Words (2015), private investigator Mark Novak returns to his old haunts in Montana in pursuit of the man who murdered his wife in Cassadaga, Florida—a strange town known for its psychics.The suspected killer, Garland Webb, released from a sexual-assault prison sentence on technicalities, has joined a crackpot cult in Montana bent on bringing down the electrical grid—and blaming it on Islamic terrorists. The group, which has a misguided reverence for alternating-current legend Nikola Tesla, includes Novak's long-estranged mother, Violet, a psychic reader who claims she has Native American blood. Arriving in the mountains, where other members of his loopy, boozing, troublemaking family live, Novak encounters Jay Baldwin, a former lineman whose wife, Sabrina, has been abducted by the messianic villain Eli Pate, the cult's leader. Pate threatens to kill her unless Jay takes apart selected high-voltage lines—a dangerous task made more frightening by Jay's memory of his brother and fellow lineman getting electrocuted on such a climb. After a female Pinkerton agent Novak is working with is captured and chained to the wall next to Sabrina, the PI turns for help to his Uncle Larry, Violet's shotgun-bearing brother. Like most of the characters, Larry is a lot more interesting than the flatly affected Novak. But as with his spellbinding 2014 effort, Those Who Wish Me Dead, Koryta employs the desolate Montana setting with such mastery and deep sense of mystery that it's a compelling character itself. And with an intriguing coda that reverberates with themes of family, myth, and psychic possibility, this new novel leaves us keenly anticipating the next installment of the Novak saga. Again proving himself one of today's top thriller writers, Koryta creates edgy suspense not with trickery but with characters who test the limits of their courage.
