Michael Koryta (pronounced ko-ree-ta) is the New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, including The Prophet. His last three novels, The Ridge, The Cypress House, and So Cold the River were all New York Times notable books and nominated for several national and international awards.
In addition to winning the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, his novel Envy the Night was selected as a Reader's Digest condensed book. Koryta's work has been translated into more than twenty languages. A former private investigator and newspaper reporter, Koryta graduated from Indiana University with a degree in criminal justice. He currently lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Bloomington, Indiana.
"An enthralling novel that easily melds mystery fiction, the
supernatural and just a touch of the old-fashioned western and
historical novels without losing the conventions of each genre. Yet
The Cypress House is so grounded in reality that no plot turn or
character rings false. The Cypress House works as a novel about
post-war stress, small-town corruption and the dusty Great
Depression. Koryta dredges up the dread that festers below the
surface of the characters who reside at "The Cypress House."...
Koryta again shows his affinity for incorporating varied genres
into a cohesive story and, along the way, stretching the boundaries
of each.... Koryta's powerful storytelling depicts believable
characters and a view of Old Florida that is seldom seen outside of
old postcards."--Oline H. Cogdill, The South Florida
Sun-Sentinel
"The last scenes in the novel...verify Koryta's knack for putting a
supernatural spin on the angst depicted in classic noir
fiction."--Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
"The Cypress House begins with pulse-racing promise....[a]
delicious setup....sprinting to a filmic, white-knuckled
finish."--Andrea Simakis, The Cleveland Plain Dealer
"The Cypress House is a dazzling blend of suspense, the
supernatural, and superb storytelling. What a gifted writer.
Michael Koryta is the real deal."--Ron Rash, author of Serena
"The Cypress House is a unique and entertaining blend of noir and
paranormal suspense, with a tightly controlled supernatural thread
as believable as the gunplay. Mr. Koryta is at the start of what
will surely be a great career. He's now on my must-read
list."--Dean Koontz, author of Lost Souls
"A gripping noir thriller-ghost story."--Colette Bancroft, St.
Petersburg Times
"A healthy helping of noir crime novel, a swirl of supernatural
horror, a spoonful of historical fiction, a dollop of old-time
Western and a dash of finely tuned observation of the natural
world. But Koryta isn't simply following a recipe. He's a creative
chef, capable of crafting a dish greater than the sum of its
ordinary parts. As in last year's So Cold the River, he cooks up a
suspenseful treat without a lot of empty calories in The Cypress
House....when it comes to plot and suspense, he knows what he's
doing. He paces the novel masterfully, allowing it to steam for a
while, simmer as threads from the past are added to the mix, then
come to a rolling boil for the last 100 pages. When violence enters
the picture, and it often does, Koryta lets the horror speak for
itself rather than exploiting it. His knowledge of the Gulf Coast
landscape helps with the novel's credibility but never intrudes on
the action....The Cypress House proves that So Cold the River
wasn't a one-hit wonder. Koryta... is quickly taking his place
among the top American writers of supernatural suspense."--Margaret
Quamme, The Columbus Dispatch
"Following up his acclaimed gothic, So Cold the River, Koryta
blends gritty noir and ghostly visions in a novel that seems
custom-designed for Nicolas "Ghost Rider" Cage. Arlen Wagner, a
survivor of bloody battles in Europe, is on a train headed for a
work camp in the Florida Keys when he sees smoke coming from the
eyes of passengers and skeletons instead of bodies....the novel
builds to a richly satisfying climax...A commanding performance in
the field of supernatural noir."--Kirkus
"Koryta is superb with mood and setting...the simmering tension
erupts into a rolling boil by the bloody, spooky, and satisfying
ending."--Keir Graff, Booklist
"Koryta's masterful follow-up to So Cold the River effectively
combines supernatural terror with the suffocating fatalism of
classic American noir....Koryta excels at describing both scenery
and his characters' inner landscapes. It's hard to think of another
book with equal appeal to Stephen King and Cornell Woolrich
fans."--Publishers Weekly
"Michael Koryta grabs readers with tales of gripping suspense and
just enough touches of the supernatural to keep them nervous on two
levels...Koryta does match King for storytelling, and he creates
characters who come alive for readers...Koryta, who made the jump
for crime writing to crime writing with a twist, knows how to build
suspense. He paints dark and dangerous times with hurricanes and
murderers threatening Wagner, Brickhill and Rebecca. His thriller
is graced with masterly descriptions of the area and the pending
storm that is another killer the trio must survive. In his taut and
atmospheric story, Koryta keeps readers guessing right up to the
end on how things will turn out, especially when Wagner begins to
see the signs of death in his own face."--Mary Foster, Associated
Press
"Michael Koryta is mining Stephen King territory [in The Cypress
House] and carving out a spot all his own."--Sarah Weinman, Women's
World
"Michael Koryta is one of our new dynamos in the world of books,
and in The Cypress House he spreads his range, wedding suspense
with the supernatural in the eeriness of 1930s Florida. He uses the
psychology of place to penetrate the human heart and delivers his
tale of hurricanes and love and hauntings with great narrative
force. Koryta's becoming a wonder we'll appreciate for a long
time."--Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter's Bone
"The second half of The Cypress House picks up steam, building to a
seriously tense and twisted final act. With its evocative Gulf
Coast setting, the book makes for a warm beach read in
midwinter."--Darren Franich, Entertainment Weekly
"There is an otherworldly quality to the Depression-era South in
Michael Koryta's The Cypress House, and not just because the hero,
Arlen Wagner, knows when people are going to die...The depiction of
Florida's panhandle, an overgrown back-woods years before
developers arrived, and the isolated inn on the gulf Coast beach
where Arlen ends up with young Civilian Conservation Corps
co-worker Paul Brickhill, are equally eerie....Deftly blending all
genres, Koryta balances the scary violence of Judge Solomon Ward
and his tame sheriff-a nightmare of despotic small-town lawmen
peculiar to a later South-with the sexual currents stirred up among
the three people effectively trapped in the house.... However
counterintuitive, he makes this curious mix of supernatural
prescience and gothic-noir work with a seamless atmospheric
certainty."--P.G. Koch, Houston Chronicle
"You'll be hooked from the first sentence of this haunting thriller
that twists like a water moccasin through the swamplands of
Depression-era Florida, drenched in rain, blood, and evil. Jim
Thompson noir with Stephen King spookiness."--Neil McMahon, author
of Lone Creek and L.A. Mental
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