The first book by Michael Koryta that I read was his supernatural thriller The Ridge, in which a local cop and reporter attempt to unravel the mysterious happenings in their Midwestern town. A former private investigator and journalist, Koryta is a writer who does suspense and mystery very well, whether the situation is more out of the ordinary or set within the daily goings-on of regular, everyday life. His latest book, Those Who Wish Me Dead, is an exercise in sheer suspense set against a familiar backdrop of man vs. man vs. nature. Like Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes, the characters resemble typical stock characters from literary thrillers, but have nifty little tweaks that make them feel human and believable.
The novel revolves around an unfortunate teenager named Jace Wilson, who, while taking an ill-advised swim in a quarry on a dare, spots two hitmen in the process of dumping bodies into the very lake he is swimming in. Flash forward a few months to when Ethan Serbin, a wilderness survival instructor who works with at-risk teenagers, takes a group into the Beartooth Mountains for the summer expedition with Jace among them. He’s been placed with this group in an effort to completely remove him from anything that might give up his location to the two hitmen, a creepy pair of brothers known as the Blackwells who find his general location all too quickly. They start a forest fire, after which the chase begins, and of course, not everyone makes it out alive.
All in all, this wasn’t one of Koryta’s best books, but it’s an entertaining thriller nonetheless. The characters are believable, their backstories are solid and compelling, and the added tension of the forest fire makes the book all the more suspenseful. It pretty much grabbed me by the throat and didn’t let go until the end, and the nice part about it was that even with the looming threat of the psychopathic Blackwell brothers, there were still twists aplenty that I didn’t really see coming. It’s a good book for a stormy weekend night.
The Eclectic Post-Dispatch 