Devils, Death and Detectives ~ "The Ridge" by Michael Koryta

Book Reviews from Others:
"Koryta delivers another supernatural thriller with punch....Part ghost story, part murder mystery, all thriller, this fast-paced and engaging read will have readers leaving the night-light on long after they have finished the book." (Publishers Weekly (starred review) )

"The choice is simple: Kill or be killed....Koryta, whose affection for the big cats and those who care for them is contagious, has produced a supernatural thriller that will raise goosebumps the size of golf balls." (Kirkus )

"A chilling supernatural thriller by [a] rising literary star" (Alexandra Alter, The Wall Street Journal )

ABOUT MICHAEL:

Michael Koryta (pronounced ko-ree-ta) is the author of many novels, some of which have won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Great Lake Books Award, and St. Martin's Press/PWA Best First Novel prize, while also earning nominations for the Edgar, Quill, Shamus and Barry awards. In addition to winning the Los Angeles Times prize for best mystery, his novel Envy the Night was selected as a Reader's Digest condensed book. His work has been translated into nearly twenty languages. A former private investigator and newspaper reporter, Koryta graduated from Indiana University with a degree in criminal justice. He currently lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Bloomington, Indiana.

Watch This Great Trailer with Mr. Koryta~
You'll find more of his videos and interviews on YouTube under his name.  This means you just have to read more of his books!


My Review:
Earlier last year, I reviewed Koryta's "Cypress House." (Please see it on my blog in 2010) It was my first introduction to his writing.  I became an immediate addict...Michael Koryta is a master storyteller.  He is the type of author who could have us mesmerized for hours while we waited out a hurricane!  And, we'd never even know we were in the midst of one except that it would be a fitting setting for his story.  I could read his books in tandem and be entertained all week without boredom.


Koryta's genius, it seems to me, is that he draws us in right away by making the circumstances quite ordinary and believable.  The first chapter leaves us with a handful of questions; some of them not so obvious until we muse upon them.  So much fun to do that.  And, from that moment on, we are hooked.  We are driven by an urge to know...


His characters are so real, I feel as if I know them.  They are easily visualized.  They are easily understood from a psychological perspective.  However, this doesn't mean all is immediately as it seems, ever, in a Koryta novel.  My attention is driven by his type of characterization with the "brick hasn't yet fallen" suspense.  What I'm trying to convey is that you think you can "see" the characters, but he always leaves you with that mote of doubt that irritates your seeker's eye.


I wasn't expecting the supernatural context of this novel.  I frankly refrained from reading the overleaf because I didn't want to spoil a minute of the actual read for myself.  That's how good Mr. Koryta is!  So, I didn't expect this ghostly intrigue and it was a surprising addition for me.  From his typical writing genre as I knew it from "Cypress House" it was an unusual twist.  Reminiscent of the Gothic novel, it worked perfectly with a modern day police suspense/mystery in the end.


"The Ridge" is a book I couldn't stop reading until the end. I dreamt of it...I read it when I was eating, and I read it during commercials between the Casey Anthony murder trial.  This gives you some idea of the intensity of the writing skills of this author.  I'm obsessive about the Anthony Trial...and "The Ridge" tore me away at times!


I can do no more than strongly urge you to get to know Michael Koryta as an author with his mind and fingers on the pulse of new suspense/thriller writing.  If there is an evolution of writers with vision in this genre, Michael Koryta is leading the curve.  His work reminds me why I read suspense and thrillers.


Without going into the storyline of this book, which the reviews and trailer do above, I want to also say that it's a story that just left me with wide eyes and the feeling that it might really happen.  I'm not one to chase after ghosts and demons, but this book made me think twice...


5 stars


Deborah/TheBookishDame

"The Cypress House," by Michael Koryta ~ Amps Up the Suspense!



"The Cypress House" is one of the first novels I'm not sure I will do justice to in a review.  It is a book so rich in good writing and suspense that it demands reading to really get a complete sense of its excellence.  Michael Koryta is at the top of authors in this genre today.

I am simply exhausted.  "The Cypress House" is not a book that allows you to go calmly about your daily business once you've opened it and read the first two paragraphs.  I've been fitting it into my schedule, bit by bit, for the last three days, and wishing I could have read it in one sitting.  Completely addictive novel...hands down.

Rumors about Michael Koryta's being "one of the best of the best" suspense writers, a quote from Michael Connelly (author of "The Poet," -- a personal favorite), are almost damning him with faint praise. Koryta is in a league of his own, seriously.

He is an artist.  His masterful hand, creating time and place, draws one into step with his characters moment by moment, relentlessly.  Koryta's descriptions are his paintbrush coloring in the reality and truth of things, laying in the minute details.  As he mentions the creaky shutters slamming in the wind 'just like the screen door at his old home'...or something squeaking 'like the swing on the porch' of his father's house, I know exactly what the sound is and where its origin lies.  As a Southerner, I see that picture in my head, and I'm there with his characters...visually, in my hearing and viserally.
This is only one example of many.

I was drawn into the hearts and minds of Koryta's characters, whether good or evil, and could understand the motives of each.  What admirable people the "good guys" are; so worthy of respect and teachers of morals and virtue, 'though not perfect...just a bit grimy with human foibles.

Arlen, a pivitol character, and Paul, who are bonded in a sort of father/son relationship, are characters with depth of sensibility, personality and symbolism.  Their love interest, the central character, Rebecca, is a young woman caught up in personal struggles and circumstances that ask of her self-sufficiency and criminal wiles not common for women her age.

The reader becomes as entangled in the anxieties and complexities of the characters' problems as they do, even as they seem insurmountable. It is this common bonding under duress that Mr. Koryta so deftly channels, bringing us into the situation without our knowing it--as surely as an impending storm will falls on us,  until we've become caught up in the horror and magnitude of the danger, ourselves.  We become  invisible accomplices with our characters, so that when all is done, our own hearts and minds are as striped to the bare bone as theirs. We are as exhausted as they are. Their triumphs are ours; and their losses, our losses.

Along with his "film noir" story setting in the storm tossed, hurricane season of Florida's Gulf Coast, Michael Koryta also throws us the tangy bit of extra-sensory perception. Arlen has the paranormal gift of seeing the impending, possible death of others.  This gift lends another dimension to an already stirling suspense novel.  Mr. Koryta has us totally amped-up for the ride...

His expertise as a writer is refreshing, and far from the stacatto clacking that so many new authors employ in suspense.  His use of vocabulary and dialog works to build his characters and their place in the story to just the right pitch.  Additionally, I learned a great deal about the veteran's work program, the depression era mind-set of post WWI, and political corruption that nearly makes 2011 look bad.  I also learned a bit about a soldier's post-traumatic stress syndrome, and its pros and cons.  The account of Arlen's soldiering days, though horrific, gave substance and foundation to the novel.  There is so much "meat" in Koryta's writing.

He magically employs the technique of anthropomorphic, natural setting to build suspense and an over-hanging doom. A house made of cypress...the wood of coffins, nearly indestructible, and carrying a foreshadowing, for instance.  The darkness of weather patterns and the damage they reek, as well as the frightening unknowns of the swamp, provide an additional picture of looming danger and the unknown factor of an "act of God," which could turn any plan upside down. Because Koryta employs these powerful techniques, we are always set on edge and waiting for the proverbial "next shoe to drop."  It's excruciatingly tantalizing, setting an oppressive mood over our reading.

"The Cypress House" is a powerful and masterfully written murder/suspense novel. Readers of this genre will, from now on, place Michael Koryta's books among those that they purchase simply on the basis that he wrote them. His first editions will become collectible because he is our next "The Postman Always Rings Twice," James Cain-like, suspense author...only, like Cain, he's blazing his own new trail. 

His other books include:  "So Cold The River,"  a recent release and,  "Envy The Night," for which he won The LA Times Book Prize for best mystery thriller

Visit his website at:     www.MichaelKoryta.com

*If you're a Michael Koryta fan, I'd love to know about it in comments!

Deborah/TheBookishDame