Audiobooks by Michael Koryta

New York Times bestselling author Michael Koryta, the "master" (Stephen King) of American thriller writing, returns with an electrifying new novel set in Maine about a mother seeking to regain custody of her children after a terrible trial tears their family apart. Once a wife, mother, and witness to a gruesome crime, Leah Trenton was extended a miraculous olive branch in the form of the state's protected witness program. But for this second chance at life, Leah would have to leave behind her Midwestern roots to the northernmost tip of Maine. Alone and isolated along the banks of the Allagash River, she is determined to focus on the present, on her reclaimed future, but the demons of her past, are relentlessly chipping away at Leah's protected hideaway. Meanwhile, in the wake of their father's untimely death, Leah's children are sent to stay with her, though they are desperate to return back home. They embark on a cross country homeward journey but before they reach, danger finds them and it is Leah who must come out of her seclusion to search for and protect her children. Told with the deft plotting and enthralling storytelling of a genre master, these two captivating chase narratives will converge along the rugged Allagash River, in the wilds of Maine, where the wills, morals, and ingenuity of a broken family will be tested against all odds.

Michael Koryta (Author), Robert Petkoff (Narrator)

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How It Happened

"And that is how it happened. Can we stop now?" Kimberly Crepeaux is no good, a notorious jailhouse snitch, teen mother, and heroin addict whose petty crimes are well-known to the rural Maine community where she lives. So when she confesses to her role in the brutal murders of Jackie Pelletier and Ian Kelly, the daughter of a well-known local family and her sweetheart, the locals have little reason to believe her story. Not Rob Barrett, the FBI investigator and interrogator specializing in telling a true confession from a falsehood. He's been circling Kimberly and her conspirators for months, waiting for the right avenue to the truth, and has finally found it. He knows, as strongly as he's known anything, that Kimberly's story-a grisly, harrowing story of a hit and run fueled by dope and cheap beer that becomes a brutal stabbing in cold blood-is how it happened. But one thing remains elusive: where are Jackie and Ian's bodies? After Barrett stakes his name and reputation on the truth of Kimberly's confession, only to have the bodies turn up 200 miles from where she said they'd be, shot in the back and covered in a different suspect's DNA, the case is quickly closed and Barrett forcibly reassigned. But for Howard Pelletier, the tragedy of his daughter's murder cannot be so tidily swept away. And for Barrett, whose career may already be over, the chance to help a grieving father may be the only one he has left. HOW IT HAPPENED is a frightening, tension-filled ride into the dark heart of rural American from a writer Stephen King has called "a master" and the New York Times has deemed "impossible to resist."

Michael Koryta (Author), Robert Petkoff (Narrator)

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So Cold the River: Booktrack Edition

It started with a documentary. The beautiful Alyssa Bradford approaches Eric Shaw to unearth the life story of her father-in-law, Campbell Bradford, a 95-year-old billionaire whose childhood is wrapped in mystery. Eric grabs the job, even though the only clues to Bradford's past are his hometown and an antique water bottle he's kept his entire life. In Bradford's hometown, Eric discovers an extraordinary past--a glorious domed hotel where movie stars, presidents, athletes, and mobsters once intermingled. Long derelict, the hotel has just been restored to its former grandeur. But something else has been restored too--a long-forgotten evil that will stop at nothing to settle a decades-old score. And with every move, Eric inches closer to the center of the building storm.

Michael Koryta (Author), Robert Petkoff (Narrator)

Audiobook

MatchUp

Edited by Lee Child In this incredible follow-up to the New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller FaceOff, twenty-two of the world's most popular thriller writers come together for an unforgettable anthology. MatchUp takes the never-before-seen bestseller pairings of FaceOff and adds a delicious new twist: gender. Eleven of the world's best female thriller writers from Diana Gabaldon to Charlaine Harris are paired with eleven of the world's best male thriller writers, including John Sandford, C.J. Box, and Nelson DeMille. The stories are edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child and feature: -Lee Coburn and Joe Pickett in "Honor & ..." by Sandra Brown and C.J. Box -Tony Hill and Roy Grace in "Footloose" by Val McDermid and Peter James -Temperance Brennan and Jack Reacher in "Faking a Murderer" by Kathy Reichs and Lee Child -Jamie Fraser and Cotton Malone in "Past Prologue" by Diana Gabaldon and Steve Berry -Liz Sansborough and Rambo in "Rambo on Their Minds" by Gayle Lynds and David Morrell -Jeffrey Tolliver and Joe Pritchard in "Short Story" by Karin Slaughter and Michael Koryta -Harper Connelly and Ty Hauck in "Dig Here" by Charlaine Harris and Andrew Gross -Regan Pescoli and Lucas Davenport in "Deserves to be Dead" by Lisa Jackson and John Sandford -Lucan Thorne and Lilliane in "Midnight Flame" by Lara Adrian and Christopher Rice -Bennie Rosato and John Corey in "Getaway" by Lisa Scottoline and Nelson DeMille -Ali Reynolds and Bravo Shaw in "Taking the Veil" by J.A. Jance and Eric Van Lustbader

Andrew Gross, C. J. Box, Charlaine Harris, Christopher Rice, David Morrell, Diana Gabaldon, Eric Van Lustbader, Gayle Lynds, J.A. Jance, John Sandford, Karin Slaughter, Kathy Reichs, Lara Adrian, Lee Child, Lisa Jackson, Lisa Scottoline, Michael Koryta, Nelson Demille, Peter James, Sandra Brown, Steve Berry, Val McDermid, Val Mcdermid (Author), Cj Wilson, Dennis Boutsikaris, Gerard Doyle, January Lavoy, Jay O. Sanders, Karen Ziemba, Laura Benanti, Lee Child, Linda Emond, Robert Petkoff, Various (Narrator)

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Rise the Dark

Rise the dark. These were the last words written in Lauren Novak's notebook before she was murdered in a strange Florida village. They've never meant anything to the police or to her husband, investigator Markus Novak. Now the man he believes killed her is out of prison, and draws Markus to the place he's avoided for so long: the lonely road where his wife was shot to death beneath the cypress trees and Spanish moss in a town called Cassadaga. In Red Lodge, Montana, a senseless act of vandalism shuts the lights off in the town where Sabrina Baldwin is still trying to adjust to a new home and mourning the loss of her brother, who was a high voltage linesman just like her husband, Jay. As the spring's final snowstorm calls Jay deeper into the mountains, chasing the destruction on the electrical grid, Sabrina is abducted by Garland Webb, the man Markus Novak believes killed his wife. Drawing them all together is a messianic villain who understands that you can never outpace your past. You can only rise against the future.

Michael Koryta (Author), Robert Petkoff (Narrator)

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Last Words

Markus Novak just wants to come home. An investigator for a Florida-based Death Row defense firm, Novak's life derailed when his wife, Lauren, was killed in the midst of a case the two were working together. Two years later, her murderer is still at large, and Novak's attempts to learn the truth about her death through less-than-legal means and jailhouse bargaining have put his job on the line. Now he's been all but banished, sent to Garrison, Indiana to assess a cold case that he's certain his boss has no intention of taking. As Novak knows all too well, some crimes never do get solved. But it's not often that the man who many believe got away with murder is the one calling for the case to be reopened. Ten years ago, a teenaged girl disappeared inside an elaborate cave system beneath rural farmland. Days later, Ridley Barnes emerged carrying Sarah Martin's lifeless body. Barnes has claimed all along that he has no memory of exactly where -- or how -- he found Sarah. His memory of whether she was dead or alive at the time is equally foggy. Tired of living under a cloud of suspicion, he says he wants answers -- even if they mean he'll end up in the electric chair. But what's he really up to? And Novak knows why he's so unhappy to be in Garrison - but why are the locals so hostile towards him? The answers lie in the fiendish brain of a dangerous man, the real identity of a mysterious woman, and deep beneath them all, in the network of ancient, stony passages that hold secrets deadlier than he can imagine. Soon Novak is made painfully aware that if he has any chance of returning to the life and career he left behind in Florida, he'll need to find the truth in Garrison first.

Michael Koryta (Author), Robert Petkoff (Narrator)

Audiobook

Those Who Wish Me Dead

The newest thriller from Michael Koryta, New York Times bestselling author 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.

Michael Koryta (Author), Robert Petkoff (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Prophet

Adam Austin hasn't spoken to his brother in years. When they were teenagers, their sister was abducted and murdered, and their devastated family never recovered. Now Adam keeps to himself, scraping by as a bail bondsman, working so close to the town's criminal fringes that he sometimes seems a part of them. Kent Austin is the beloved coach of the local high school football team, a religious man and hero in the community. After years of near misses, Kent's team has a shot at the state championship, a welcome point of pride in a town that has had its share of hardships. Just before playoffs begin, the town and the team are thrown into shock when horrifically, impossibly, another teenage girl is found murdered. As details emerge that connect the crime to the Austin brothers, the two must confront their buried rage and grief-and unite to stop a killer. Michael Koryta, widely hailed as one of the most exciting young thriller authors at work today, has written his greatest novel ever-an emotionally harrowing, unstoppably suspenseful novel that Donald Ray Pollock has called "one of the sharpest and superbly plotted crime novels I've read in my life."

Michael Koryta (Author), Robert Petkoff (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Ridge

In an isolated stretch of eastern Kentucky, on a hilltop known as Blade Ridge, stands a lighthouse that illuminates nothing but the surrounding woods. For years the lighthouse has been considered no more than an eccentric local landmark-until its builder is found dead at the top of the light, and his belongings reveal a troubling local history. For deputy sheriff Kevin Kimble, the lighthouse-keeper's death is disturbing and personal. Years ago, Kimble was shot while on duty. Somehow the death suggests a connection between the lighthouse and the most terrifying moment of his life. Audrey Clark is in the midst of moving her large-cat sanctuary onto land adjacent to the lighthouse. Sixty-seven tigers, lions, leopards, and one legendary black panther are about to have a new home there. Her husband, the sanctuary's founder, died scouting the new property, and Audrey is determined to see his vision through. As strange occurrences multiply at the Ridge, the animals grow ever more restless, and Kimble and Audrey try to understand what evil forces are moving through this ancient landscape, just past the divide between dark and light. The Ridge is the new thriller from international bestseller Michael Koryta, further evidence of why Dean Koontz has said "Michael Koryta's work resonates into deeper strata than does most of what I read" and why Michael Connelly has named him "one of the best of the best."

Michael Koryta (Author), Robert Petkoff (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Cypress House

Arlen Wagner has an awful gift: he can see death in the eyes of men before it strikes. He's never wrong. So 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. It doesn't take Arlen and Paul long to realize that the storm isn't the only approaching danger--a much deadlier force controls the county and everyone living in it. But Paul refuses to abandon Rebecca to face the threat alone, and Arlen's eerie gift warns him that they'll 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).

Michael Koryta (Author), Robert Petkoff (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Welcome Grave: The Lincoln Perry Mysteries, Book 3

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 fiancée. 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 grant 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 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. "Koryta is one of the best of the best, plain and simple."-Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Michael Koryta (Author), Scott Brick (Narrator)

Audiobook

Sorrow's Anthem

In the beginning, it was just about the money. Then things got personal. This is the story that Ed Gradduk tells his best friend, private investigator Lincoln Perry. Ed is on the run, hiding from the police who are looking to arrest him for arson and murder. When Gradduk is killed in a brutal confrontation with the Cleveland police, Perry is shaken. How could this have happened to his friend? With his trademark grit and determination, Perry sets out to understand the forces that brought down Ed Gradduk. Sorrow's Anthem is marked by a sure-handed exploration of both character and its relationship to crime. It more than delivers on the promise of Tonight I Said Goodbye and establishes Michael Koryta as the top young mystery writer in America today. "Sometimes a book grabs you and stays in your memory long after the rest of the in-box's contents have been flushed away by new arrivals. Koryta's second mystery about Cleveland private eye Lincoln Perry has this kind of hold on me...Dashiell Hammett of Red Harvest would appreciate the tangle of high-level political and police corruption of Sorrow's Anthem, but anyone who mourns for lost friendships will add a more visceral reaction." -Chicago Tribune

Michael Koryta (Author), Scott Brick (Narrator)

Audiobook