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Those Who Wish Me Dead Kindle Edition
When fourteen-year-old Jace Wilson witnesses a brutal murder, he's plunged into a new life, issued a false identity and hidden in a wilderness skills program for troubled teens. The plan is to get Jace off the grid while police find the two killers.
The result is the start of a nightmare. The killers, known as the Blackwell Brothers, are slaughtering anyone who gets in their way in a methodical quest to reach him. Now all that remains between them and the boy are Ethan and Allison Serbin, who run the wilderness survival program; Hannah Faber, who occupies a lonely fire lookout tower; and endless miles of desolate Montana mountains. The clock is ticking, the mountains are burning, and those who wish Jace Wilson dead are no longer far behind.
"Outstanding in every way...Don't you dare miss it." --Lee Child
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherLittle, Brown and Company
- Publication dateJune 3, 2014
- File size1454 KB
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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Review
"Outstanding in every way, and a guaranteed thriller-of-the-year...Stephen King would be proud of the set up, Cormac McCarthy would be proud of the writing, and I would be proud of the action. Don't you dare miss it."―Lee Child, #1 bestselling author of Never Go Back
"Michael Koryta isn't just one of the finest authors working in the crime genre today. He's simply one of today's finest authors, period. His stories are taut, compelling, and beautifully rendered. His understanding of human nature-the good, the evil, and all the gray between-is masterful. Those Who Wish Me Dead is Koryta at his best."―William Kent Krueger, author of Ordinary Grace
"Warning: Michael Koryta's wonderful, riveting, and harrowing Those Who Wish Me Dead may just move you to tears. Enjoy at your own risk."―Harlan Coben, #1 bestselling author of Missing You and Six Years
"Not only does its plot sizzle with one shocking turn after another; it also involves a massive forest fire so vividly described you almost expect the edges of the pages to be scorched...Koryta builds the book's suspense with impressive skill, shifting among different characters' points of view to keep the reader constantly on edge."―Colette Bancroft, Tampa Bay Times
"Absolutely breathtaking, nail-biting, and edge-of-your-seat. Michael Koryta is a master at maintaining suspense and a hell of a good writer. Those Who Wish Me Dead is one of the best chase-and-escape novels you'll read this year - or any other year. The pace never lets up."―Nelson DeMille, author of The Quest
"If you want an elegantly written, taut thriller with an amazing sense of place, then look no further.... It's a well-written book..., but it's also a cracking page-turner and a truly immersive experience."―Madhulika Sikka, NPR Books
"Reading Michael Koryta is like stepping into fast water. You don't know where the current will take you, only that it's strong and deep and likely to sweep you away. That's what the best fiction does, and Koryta does it better than just about anyone else."―John Hart, author of Iron House
"Koryta, a widely-praised veteran of cross-genre tales, has upped his game with this stand-alone's seamless blend of western-wilderness thriller and mainstream crime fiction, with a prickly dab of horror...Combine Koryta's existing fan base, the current vogue for wilderness thrillers, and an aggressive marketing campaign, and you get a novel certain to attract a whole lot of eager readers."―Christine Tran, Booklist (starred review)
"Michael Koryta is that rare author who is at once a compelling story teller and a fantastic writer. From the first sentence of Those Who Wish Me Dead, you'll be under his spell. His characters are living, breathing people you'll care about; his setting is a place you'll visit and stay -- long after you've decided to leave because you'rescared. You can't leave; you're trapped. There are too many nerve-jangling, beautifully written, razor sharp moments and you won't want to miss a single one. This is an absolute sizzler."―Lisa Unger, author of In the Blood
"The summer of 2014 brings Those Who Wish Me Dead, a lean, propulsive action-adventure thriller with a raging forest fire as its backdrop and with much more finesse than that description might suggest. The ingenious tricks and conversational wit of Those Who Wish Me Dead don't usually come with this territory....Attitude is one of Mr. Koryta's strongest attributes. He barges through this story with utter confidence, which makes its bravado impossible to resist."―Janet Maslin, The New York Times
"Wow! An absolutely first rate novel. More than just an edge-of-your-seat, adrenaline-fueled story of life and death and survival in the Montana wilderness. Those Who Wish Me Dead is what every reader hopes for each time they start a book. A smart, surprising, and emotionally engaging experience that simply does not let up. Ever!"―Christopher Reich, author of Rules of Deception
"This book captured me. Here are two bad guys so bad, so well drawn, that I wanted to avert my eyes--but I didn't want to miss a beat of this sharp thriller. This is a smart big book with what are called twists and turns, but which are really terrific surprises in every deepening layer. Young Jace's journey to survive is a gripping rush. I know not to run in the woods but I wanted to tell him: run, woods or not, just run!"―Ron Carlson, author of The Signal
"Those Who Wish Me Dead is an absolutely thrilling read. I read most of it with my breath held, occasionally exhaling to ask myself, 'What will happen next?' I highly recommend it."
―Kevin Powers, National Book Award Finalist and author of The Yellow Birds
"Michael Koryta is a fearless stylist...a heart-thumping backwoods adventure that sends two creatively sadistic killers into Montana's Beartooth Mountains, where they spark a monster forest fire to flush out the only witness to their crimes...Koryta rigs his tripwire plot with all sorts of unpredictable characters and unforeseen events, including a "flint-and-steel" electrical storm that will make your hair stand on end. There are any number of hunting parties combing the burning woods for Jace, from the Blackwell brothers to two determined women riding an injured horse. But sitting here, heart in mouth, it sure looks as if that raging forest fire will outrun them all."―Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
"Those Who Wish Me Dead is beautifully written, perfectly paced, expertly structured, and simply unputdownable. Koryta is an absolute master."―Deon Meyer, author of Seven Days
"This novel is brilliantly orchestrated. Also crucial to its success is Koryta's mastery of the beautiful but threatening setting, including a mountain fire's ability to electrify the ground, radiate a lethal force field-and create otherworldly light shows. Summer reading doesn't get better than this."―Kirkus (starred review)
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B00FPQA76Q
- Publisher : Little, Brown and Company (June 3, 2014)
- Publication date : June 3, 2014
- Language : English
- File size : 1454 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 401 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #106,935 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,883 in Murder
- #2,354 in Murder Thrillers
- #2,811 in Crime Thrillers (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Michael Koryta (pronounced Ko-ree-ta) is the New York Times-bestselling author of 11 suspense novels. His work has been praised by Stephen King, Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Dean Koontz, James Patterson, Dennis Lehane, Daniel Woodrell, Ron Rash, and Scott Smith among many others, and has been translated into more than 20 languages. His books have won or been nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Edgar® Award, Shamus Award, Barry Award, Quill Award, International Thriller Writers Award, and the Golden Dagger. They’ve been selected as “best books of the year” by publications as diverse as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Amazon.com, O the Oprah Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, People, Reader’s Digest, iBooks, and Kirkus Reviews.
His recent thriller Those Who Wish Me Dead was named the summer’s best thriller by both Amazon and Entertainment Weekly, and was selected as one of the year’s best books by more than 10 publications. The audio version was named one of the best audio books of the year, as well, the second time that Robert Petkoff’s narration of Michael’s work has earned such an honor. The novel is currently being adapted as a major motion picture by 20th Century Fox.
Michael’s previous work ranges from a trio of supernatural novels—So Cold the River, The Cypress House, and The Ridge, which were all named New York Times notable books of the year and earned starred reviews from Publishers Weekly—to stand-alone crime novels such as The Prophet (A New York Times bestseller) and Envy the Night (selected as a Reader’s Digest condensed book), to a series of award-winning novels featuring private investigator Lincoln Perry—Tonight I Said Goodbye, Sorrow’s Anthem, A Welcome Grave, and The Silent Hour.
Various film and television adaptations of the books are underway, with The Prophet, So Cold the River, The Cypress House, and Those Who Wish Me Dead all optioned as feature films, and the Lincoln Perry series and The Ridge being developed for television. Michael has written for the screen in both feature film and television. Oscar and Emmy winners are attached to every project.
Before turning to writing full-time, Michael worked as a private investigator and as a newspaper reporter, and taught at the Indiana University School of Journalism. He began working for a private investigator as an intern while in high school, turned it into his day job in the early stages of his writing career, and still maintains an interest in the firm. As a journalist, he won numerous awards from the Society of Professional Journalists.
Michael’s first novel, the Edgar-nominated Tonight I Said Goodbye was accepted for publication when he was 20 years old. He wrote his first two published novels before graduating from college, and was published in nearly 10 languages before he fulfilled the “writing requirement” classes required for his diploma.
Michael was raised in Bloomington, Indiana, where he graduated from Bloomington North High School in 2001, and later graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. In 2008 he was honored as a “distinguished young alumni” by Indiana University, and in 2010 he was named “distinguished alumni’ by the criminal justice department.
Michael’s passions outside of writing and reading involve a variety of outdoor pursuits – hiking, camping, boating, and fishing are all likely to occupy his free time when he’s not working on a new book. Some of his favorite spots in the world are the Beartooth Mountains, the setting of Those Who Wish Me Dead and a place to which he returns at least twice a year; the flowages of the Northwoods in Wisconsin, where he began fishing with his father as a child and still returns each fall; St. Petersburg, FL, where he lived part-time for 8 years, and southern Maine. Although he loves to travel, he stills claims his native Bloomington, Indiana as home and has a great love of the area, its diversity and culture, and the natural beauty of the surrounding countryside. He lives in Bloomington with his wife, Christine, a cranky cat named Marlowe, an emotionally disturbed cat named John Pryor (long story on that name), and an exceedingly athletic dog of unknown heritage named Lola. He remains on the never-ending quest for the world’s best microbrew (Upland in Bloomington is a perennial contender) and the world’s best coffee (currently a tie between Kahwa in St. Petersburg and the Runcible Spoon in Bloomington).
Research has always been a driving passion of Michael’s approach, leading him from big-cat rescues with the Exotic Feline Rescue Center (www.exoticfelinerescuecenter.org) to wilderness survival schools and caving trips and hypnotism. He can be followed via www.michaelkoryta.com, twitter @mjkoryta, and Facebook.
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This book is COMPLETELY different: fresh, new, exciting, exhilarating. The setting is raw and unusual. I immediately care a lot about the characters and especially the tertiary premise (troubled teens go to a last-chance rescue camp taught by an expert survivalist). The antagonists are super-creepy and Koryta has introduced some new ways of thinking about creepiness that I have not seen used before. Love, love, love the firefighting angle. Koryta gets into the action right away and stays there. There are unexpected tangential aspects you had not considered.
What's clear with this book is that Koryta took his time to hone the thing down to the crispest, meatiest possible reading. For example, even if you don't care about topo maps (or don't know what thy are), Koryta makes you care. The fire description scenes are horrifying. I actually Googled the firefighter boots to see if they exist (they do and he's right, they're dreadfully expensive). My idea of camping is going to a Motel 8, showering and snuggling up in a warm bed with a good Kindle book. But now I want to go backpacking in the Montana wilderness. That's the power of this writer's expertise. You're drawn in: you're right there backpacking with these kids.
When the book's description says that there's some underlying horror elements, it's not talking about paranormal stuff: it's talking about people who've gone so far off the reservation that you wonder how they got where they are today. You find yourself wanting more backstory on these creepy dudes. Their mom and dad had to have been prize-winning parents.
And Koryta has the cojones to actually say that all super-elitist survivalist training, regardless of whether they're Army Rangers, Navy SEALS, whatever - come from the Air Force! Wow, I like that take-off because the Air Force never gets any strokes. Not sure I believe it just because he says it, but the premise works in the book. You have no doubt this protagonist can pull it off. Or not. You are actually taught survivalist techniques and you're like "Cool! Good to know!"
Truly you will find yourself mad that you dropped $13 for a book you'll knock out in 1.5 hours. It's that good. I will DEFINITELY buy more Koryta books. Michael: Don't sell yourself out to the big house publishers. Keep cranking out fine material like this. We need you!
THE best mystery/thriller book I've read since Koontz's "Intensity."
He’s in the Montana mountains with two stone-cold killers who are hunting a boy with Ethan’s unwilling help — a kid in Ethan's group of teenage campers leaning survival. The boy is a witness to their crimes — and they want him dead.
There are a lot of heroes and heroines in this plot The boy Jace, who applies himself desperately to learning survival techniques and principles. Ethan, who has never been a fighter, just a teacher, but finds he can fight when he has to. Nathan’s wife, who outsmarts the two psychopaths with a great act of courage. A female fire fighter who needs to atone for a fatal mistake in her fire-fighting days — and does.
The two evil brothers are very creepy — quirky villains who make everyone’s blood run cold.
This is an adventure story, as well as a crime novel with a pile-up of dead bodies. There’s a shocker of a twist at the end.
This thriller is about fear.. how to deal with it and how to overcome it. The fear gets to you because this is not some prefabricated, cardboard, high octane, drama. As you turn the pages you will soon find yourself squirming like a bug on a board scared to death for this boy. The circumstances are too real to ignore.
The two Blackwell brothers are a different lot. They are emotionless killers of a different kind. They are well trained in combat and they work well together. They don't make mistakes; they make others make mistakes. They speak with an unusual objective tone . They seem emotionally removed from the world. When they arrive to kill a victim the two of them speak to victim with a carefree , soft tone like a postman delivering the mail.. Even in the heat of thing going very wrong for them they do not ever lose this objective dialogue. The two Blackwell brothers are very well developed by Koryta. You have to be different to be a murder and these two Blackwell brothers appear very real and very different. What they do and how they speak will scare any reader. You keep reading to find an escape from this fear.
This is a novel where you learn of lot of interesting facts like what to do if you get lost in the woods, how forest fires work, what escapes routes to take when up near the top of the mountain, how to build a fire, how to tack a trail of a hiker etc. There is nothing predictable about this novel and there is nothing contrived about the plot.
Top reviews from other countries
(p.s. man wird sehen, was eine us-amerikanische Verfilmung mit Angelina Jolie in einer Hauptrolle aus diesem Stoff macht; sollte bald in die Kinos kommen)