Those Who Wish Me Dead (Michael Koryta)

Having read and liked Michael Koryta's So Cold the River a few years back, I was happy that my book club selected his Those Who Wish Me Dead. It has the same level of high suspense but with more of an outdoor survivalist atmosphere.

Teenage Jace has witnessed a gruesome murder near his house, and now the perpetrators are out to make sure he doesn't speak (if you know what I mean). Jace is whisked away to hide in the mountains, where he attends a survival camp for troubled boys, led by Ethan. The only problem is that the murderers, two ultra creepy brothers, know the general whereabouts of Jace and will stop at nothing to find him. The novel becomes quite the game of cat and mouse, with a lot of characters interacting to either harm Jace or save him.

Those Who Wish Me Dead has some real heart-stopping moments, with almost everyone's life in danger at some point. There's a lot of foreshadowing, which makes it easy to tell who is going to make it out of the mountains and who's not. However, there are a lot of parts that I didn't see coming, and those are the best kind of reads.

MY RATING - 4

So Cold the River (Michael Koryta)

So Cold the River's book jacket uses words such as "irresistible suspense" and "spellbinding". I wouldn't go that far, but if you are looking for an original, well-written tale very reminiscent of Stephen King's The Shining, then this book might be for you.

Eric Shaw is a down-on-his-luck, back-from-LA, Chicago filmmaker who is now "reduced" to designing "video life portraits" at funerals to make ends meet. To make matters worse, he is also on his way to divorce from his wife, Claire. When he is approached by Alyssa Bradford to spend a few weeks in French Lick and West Baden to document her dying father-in-law, Campbell's, mysterious past, he can't say no. Both are small towns with deep histories in their extraordinary hotels (I told you to expect The Shining). Shaw meets many people along the way who are willing to help him, but becomes addicted to the towns' water. The water shows him visions of Campbell's life in the early 1900s. The story takes a sinister turn when Eric's visions become stronger.

The story begins strong with a penchant for pageturning. Midway through, it loses some steam, but everything is nicely pulled together in the end. I did not find it an "icy, terrifying winner", as Dennis Lehane's blurb on the cover suggests, but if you are looking for some mindless entertainment, you can find it here.

MY RATING - 3

This review can also be found at www.bookloons.com.