Michael Koryta / Scott Carson Books In Order

Tonight I Said Goodbye

A remarkable debut mystery from the award winning author of the 2003 St. Martin’s Press/Private Eye Writers of America Prize for Best First Private Eye Novel. Michael Koryta’s Tonight I Said Goodbye marks the emergence of a stunning new voice in crime fiction. With its edge of your seat pacing, finely drawn characters, and rock solid prose, Tonight I Said Goodbye would seem to be the work of a grizzled pro; the fact that the author is just twenty one years old makes it all the more amazing. Investigator Wayne Weston is found dead of an apparent suicide in his home in an upscale Cleveland suburb, and his wife and six year old daughter are missing. Weston’s father insists that private investigators Lincoln Perry and Joe Pritchard take the case to exonerate his son and find his granddaughter and daughter in law. As they begin to work they discover there is much more to the situation than has been described in the prevalent media reports. There are rumors of gambling debts and extortion, and a group of Russians with ties to organized crime who don’t appreciate being investigated a point they make clear with baseball bats. With some assistance from newspaper reporter Amy Ambrose, Perry and Pritchard believe they are making swift progress. But then they are warned off the investigation by a millionaire real estate tycoon and the FBI. Just when they feel they are closing in on a possible source of answers, another murder forces them to change direction in the case. Perry travels to a resort town in South Carolina and there he finds more than one game being played, and all of them are deadly. The stakes quickly become very personal for Perry, and it’s clear that there will be no walking away from this case. In a debut that has already garnered praise from some of today’s top writers, Michael Koryta immediately establishes himself as a standard bearer for the next generation of crime writers. Tonight I Said Goodbye is a 2005 Edgar Award Nominee for Best First Novel.

Sorrow’s Anthem

Once Lincoln Perry and Ed Gradduk were friends. Then Perry became a cop, Gradduk turned dangerous, and their friendship imploded. Now, Gradduk is dead. And Perry wants to use his PI license to prove that whatever else his childhood friend might have been, he wasn’t a murderer. For the police, this case is over. The woman Gradduk is alleged to have killed can’t tell her side of the story, and the building she entered with him has burned to the ground. But Perry is making connections to a wave of arson that struck Cleveland seventeen years ago fires that lit up the dark secrets of two families, a local powerbroker, and at least one crooked cop. Now Perry and his partner can see ties between the past and present, between innocents and criminals and sirens that keep playing…

A Welcome Grave

Sometime after midnight, on a moonless October night turned harsh by a fine, windswept rain, one of the men I liked least in the world was murdered in a field near Bedford, just south of the city…
. The detectives went looking for suspects people whose histories with Jefferson were adversarial and hostile. At the top of that list, they found me. So begins A Welcome Grave, the third novel by award winning mystery writer Michael Koryta, featuring private investigator Lincoln Perry. Once a rising star on the Cleveland police force, Perry ended his career when he left one of the city’s prominent attorneys, Alex Jefferson, bleeding in the parking lot of his country club retribution for his affair with Perry’s fianc e. Now Jefferson is dead, the victim of a brutal murder, and his widow has called upon Perry for a favor he knows he shouldn’t accept but can’t turn down: to find Jefferson’s estranged son, partial beneficiary of the dead man’s fortune. The case is simple enough, a routine ‘locate,’ and he’ll be paid plenty of money for the work. The encounter should be simple, too: a brief exchange of information and maybe an empty condolence before Perry gets back into his truck and returns home. Instead, he’s loaded into a police car and taken to a rural jail while Jefferson’s son is zipped into a body bag. Perry soon learns that Jefferson’s millions are the target of a thirst for revenge that hasn’t been satisfied by blood. As a pair of deadly assailants push deep into the investigator’s life, they bring with them police from two states who are determined to see Perry in jail. Building on the skill that prompted the Toronto Sun to call him ‘one of America’s best young mystery writers,’ Michael Koryta makes A Welcome Grave an intense exploration of the lengths to which a desperate man is forced to go in order to clear his name and solve a crime. This is a thrilling new book that justifies the critical acclaim and solidifies his role as an emerging talent among today’s top writers. Praise for Michael Koryta A Welcome Grave ‘For a while now, Michael Koryta has been called one of the rising young talents in crime fiction. I say enough of that. A Welcome Grave proves the promise. Koryta is one of the best of the best, plain and simple. With stories like this, his Lincoln Perry is going to be around for a long, long time.’ Michael Connelly, author of The Overlook and the bestselling Harry Bosch series ‘With the publication of A Welcome Grave, it’s time to stop referring to Michael Koryta as a boy wonder and just focus on the sheer wonder of his storytelling. Koryta knows how to put his characters and his readers into an ever tightening vise of twists, turns, and conspiracies, but it’s his empathy that makes his work stand out. This is a nuanced, mature novel that proves both the depth of Koryta’s talent and the vitality of the PI genre.’ Laura Lippman, Edgar Award winner and author of No Good Deeds ‘In the last few years, new writing talent has entered all subgenres of crime fiction. One of the names at the top of the list is Michael Koryta. He is a breath of fresh air, his writing is clear and concise, and his observations on the darkness of the human condition show how the PI novel is one of the finest forms in all of fiction writing. Mr. Koryta is on his way to being a master of the PI novel, sacred ground indeed.’ Richard Katz, Mystery One Bookstore SORROW’S ANTHEM ‘Sorrow’s Anthem is no sophomore slump.’ The Washington Post ‘Koryta displays the maturity of a writer with several novels under his belt, and his plot percolates with crisp dialogue that might impress Chandler himself.’ Booklist starred review TONIGHT I SAID GOODBYE ‘Say hello to a new crime talent.’ Chicago Tribune ‘ Koryta has produced what few thought possible an incredibly fresh PI novel when the subgenre had been long declared fatigued Koryta emerges fully formed in his first effort.’ The Baltimore Sun

The Silent Hour

Fresh off the critical acclaim of his Los Angeles Times Book Prize nominated Envy the Night, Michael Koryta returns with a blistering new installment in the Lincoln Perry series. Whisper RidgeHome to DreamsOctober 2, 1992 April 12, 1996So reads the strange epitaph carved beside the door of the home called Whisper Ridge, a multimillion dollar piece of architectural majesty that once housed the beginnings of a unique program for paroled murderers. The program never got off the ground, however, despite how passionate a woman named Alexandra Cantrell, daughter of a notorious Mafia don, and her husband, Joshua, had been about it. Still uninhabited twelve years later, the house remains as a strange monument to dangerous secrets, falling into ruin as the forest grows up around it. While the couple’s abrupt exit was unusual, it was also not regarded as suspicious until the bones of Alexandra s husband are found buried in the woods. Private investigator Lincoln Perry isn t thrilled about the situation, or his client: Parker Harrison served fifteen years for murder but claims Alexandra s intervention saved his life. Now he wants to find her and he s not the only one. What seems at first like the simplest of jobs proves to be an undertaking that will challenge both Perry s abilities as a detective and his commitment to that calling. With a new partner to train and a case that leads straight to the heart of the Cleveland organized crime scene, Perry finds himself glancing over his shoulder at every turn, pushing the bounds of safety even as he backs away. Once again Michael Koryta has crafted an intricate, lightning paced thriller, ratcheting up the tension as he explores just how dangerous the offer of a second chance can be. The latest installment in the Lincoln Perry series, which the Chicago Tribune calls addictively readable, marks another step forward in his incredible career.

Envy the Night

Koryta is one of the best of the best, plain and simple.
Michael Connelly

Superb writing and storytelling from Michael Koryta, one of crime fiction’s brightest young talents. Envy the Night represents his finest work to date.’

George Pelecanos

In this first stand alone novel from the critically acclaimed Edgar Award finalist, Michael Koryta fulfills his early promise with a dark and mature novel of a young man trying to escape his past.

It has been seven years since Frank Temple III joined the rest of the world in learning his father’s bloody secret: The U.S. marshal maintained a covert career as a contract killer, a double life that ended in suicide to avoid prosecution and prison.

The shocking revelation triggered years of anonymous drifting for Frank, time spent running from his legacy and struggling to believe that the father he d loved so dearly was entirely in the wrong. After all, the victims hadn’t been innocents. And Devin Matteson, the man who d lured his father into the killing game only to later give him up to the FBI, is probably the darkest of the lot. Those are troubling thoughts, and Frank tries to stay away from them. But when an old family friend calls to say that Matteson is returning to the isolated Wisconsin lake that was once sacred ground for their families, it s a homecoming Frank knows he can t allow.

His arrival in town reveals a situation far from the expected, though.

While Matteson is nowhere to be found, his old cabin is indeed occupied by a strange, beautiful woman and a nervous man with a gun. When a pair of assassins from Miami arrive on their heels, Frank knows Matteson can t be far behind. And while the wise move would be to call in the police and get out of town fast, that just doesn’t feel right. After all, contract killer or not, Frank s father was at heart a teacher. And his son excelled at the lessons.

Family secrets, mob hitmen, and a father s shadowy legacy combine to make this Koryta s most compelling thriller yet.

Addictively readable.
Chicago Tribune

Sentence for polished sentence, no one in the genre writes better.
Kirkus Reviews

Stylish prose…
well observed.
The New York Times

Haunting writing…
sophisticated plotting.
Publishers Weekly

It s time to stop referring to Michael Koryta as a boy wonder and just focus on the sheer wonder of his storytelling. Koryta knows how to put his characters and his readers into an ever tightening vise of twists, turns, and conspiracies, but it s his empathy that makes his work stand out.
Laura Lippman

For a while now Michael Koryta has been called one of the rising young talents in crime fiction. I say enough of that . Koryta is one of the best of the best, plain and simple.
Michael Connelly

So Cold the River

It started with a beautiful woman and a challenge. As a gift for her husband, Alyssa Bradford approaches Eric Shaw to make a documentary about her father in law, Campbell Bradford, a 95 year old billionaire whose past is wrapped in mystery. Eric grabs the job even though there are few clues to the man’s past just the name of his hometown and an antique water bottle he’s kept his entire life. In Bradford’s hometown, Eric discovers an extraordinary history a glorious domed hotel where movie stars, presidents, athletes, and mobsters once mingled, and hot springs whose miraculous mineral water cured everything from insomnia to malaria. Neglected for years, the resort has been restored to its former grandeur just in time for Eric’s stay. Just hours after his arrival, Eric experiences a frighteningly vivid vision. As the days pass, the frequency and intensity of his hallucinations increase and draw Eric deeper into the town’s dark history. He discovers that something besides the hotel has been restored a long forgotten evil that will stop at nothing to regain its lost glory. Brilliantly imagined and terrifyingly real, So Cold the River is a tale of irresistible suspense with a racing, unstoppable current.

The Cypress House

A journey to Florida’s coast becomes an inescapable nightmare in the newest supernatural thriller from international bestseller Michael Koryta. Arlen Wagner has seen it in men before a trace of smoke in their eyes that promises imminent death. He is never wrong. When Arlen awakens on a train one hot Florida night and sees death’s telltale sign in the eyes of his fellow passengers, he tries to warn them. Only 19 year old Paul Brickhill believes him, and the two abandon the train, hoping to escape certain death. They continue south, but soon are stranded at The Cypress House an isolated Gulf Coast boarding house run by the beautiful Rebecca Cady directly in the path of an approaching hurricane. The storm isn’t the only approaching danger, though. A much deadlier force controls the county and everyone living in it, and Arlen wants out fast. But Paul refuses to abandon Rebecca to face the threats alone, even though Arlen’s eerie gift warns that if they stay too long they may never leave. From its chilling beginning to terrifying end, The Cypress House is a story of relentless suspense from ‘one of the best of the best’ Michael Connelly.

The Ridge

On an isolated ridge in the Kentucky woods stands a homemade lighthouse, hundreds of miles from any substantial body of water. Local reporter Roy Darmus has always found it an amusing oddity until he is selected as the recipient of a suicide note from its builder. Roy enters the bizarre structure to find the walls covered in maps bearing the names of the dead including his own parents, who were killed in a car accident when he was a boy. Roy soon has a storytelling assignment more daunting than anything he’s seen before: convincing people that an age old legend has in fact come to life. With haunting atmosphere and tension coiled plot, The Ridge is a terrifying journey into the heart of darkness.

Seize the Night

Dark Hunter: an immortal warrior who has traded his soul to Artemis for one moment of vengeance on his enemies. In return, they swear to spend eternity protecting mankind from the daimons and vampires that prey on them. Valerius isn’t a popular Dark Hunter he’s a Roman, which means that the largely Greek Hunters have a major grudge against him and his civilization for superceding them. To make things worse, he’s very conscious of his aristocratic background and breeding. So it serves him right when he runs into Tabitha Devereaux. She’s sassy, sexy, and completely unwilling to take him seriously. Not to mention Tabitha is also the sister in law of Kyrian, a former Dark Hunter and Val’s mortal enemy. What Tabitha does take seriously is hunting and killing vampires and soon she and Val have to grapple with the deadliest of all Daimons one who’s managed to come back from the dead, and one who holds a serious grudge against both of them. To win against evil, Val will have to loosen up, learn to trust, and put everything on the line to protect a man he hates and a woman who drives him nuts.