This is the second in Michael Koryta's series featuring investigator Mark Novak, and I found it to be such a thrill ride of a book that I am going to be reading the first one, "Last Words" pretty quickly. This particular book, "Rise the Dark" starts with Mark trying to hunt down the man who shot his wife, Lauren, to death in a small town in Florida (Garland Webb). Lauren had been an attorney working cases for the Innocence Project. When Mark goes to the small town in Florida, he makes an appoint...

Good, pacey, a little too filled with coincidence to get five stars, but there was something I also particularly liked in it:There's this Charles Manson-like cult leader, and a clever approach he takes in his nefarious plot. He's mostly an agent of chaos. He wants civilization to collapse, not for any particular reason beyond his own ego needs. But he recruits followers from all kinds of groups who have their own reasons to join him, and tries to insulate the groups from one another. There are e...

I've read some of Koryta's other works; his writing is excellent and his characters are vivid. The story starts out with the protagonist as a skeptical disbeliever, but then it goes on to bring up channeling, speaking with the dead and telling the future as if they are a reality, at least to some. Sorry, but I'm not a fan of the occult. Give me a baseball bat and I'll quickly strike a happy medium.

This is the 2nd Mark Novak private detective book and it was a good story but I think it would have been better if I had read the 1st book. Home-grown terrorists plot to take down the electrical power grid in the northeast USA and it involves Mark's troubled mother and his dead wife. The action moves quickly from Florida to Wyoming and Montana mountains with CIA and FBI getting involved also and has a cliff hanger ending. Book #3 should be coming soon.

I made it to page 238. Six weeks ago. Since then I have started and finished five other books, purchased at least twelve, and brought home an additional six from the library today. All of which is to say, I've come to terms with publicly admitting that I am highly unlikely to finish Rise The Dark, and to post a review sharing why. The synopsis is appealing. Koryta tees up the tension with two main characters --one of whose wife is kidnapped almost immediately; the other lost his wife a couple of...

Absolutely electric! Hee, hee, see what I did there? No? Well, if you read this book, you will. And read it you should: It's a real sizzler.I will, however, make two observations, the first of which is that the ending is a cliffhanger - definitely not something I like to get smacked in the teeth with when I get there. Yes, I knew there's a previous book featuring one of the main characters, but I didn't connect the dots and make the assumption that there'll be more until it was too late. The oth...

Rise the Dark is the second in the Mark Novak series by the outstanding author Michael Koryta. Novak, an investigator, is searching in Cassadega, Florida for his wife's killer and the reason behind why she was shot. His search brings him back to Montana with the knowledge that his family might be involved. Meanwhile, another plot unfolds with a kidnapping and possible domestic terrorism act coming on the US electric power grid. We meet some very disturbing people.Fast-paced and touching on the p...

While I still miss Koryta's early Horror titles, I must say he's doing very well with these thrillers with just a touch of the paranormal. And for me, at least, there's also more than a bit of horror here: in the first of this series (Last Words), it was caving; this time it's electricity. Two things that make me squirm--yikes! So there is a bit of horror here--worst possible fears played on. Mark Novak is back, still seeking revenge for the killing of his wife. Lots of details filled in as we m...

***Spoilers***I really enjoy Michael Koryta' s stories and this one was no exception. This is the second Mark Novak book, but can be read as a stand alone. In this book we learn what happened to Markus's wife and also find a link between Markus and the main character, Arlen Wagner, from The Cypress House. We continue to see Markus' struggle with adjusting to life without Lauren and are given the first idea he may be moving forward. The possibly of a future relationship was left open for future e...

RISE THE DARK is the second Markus Novak novel from Koryta but you can pick this one up (August of this year) and be comfortable reading without having read LAST WORDS. He fills you in with enough history from Novak's first installment. He tackles domestic terrorism and the USA's power grid in his latest, and he does a bang up job. I have been a fan of Koryta since his first book and his ventures in mixing supernatural into his thrillers work. The characters and situations are believable, and hi...

Not sure where I've been, but apparently I missed book number one in this series. I've read every Michael Koryta book but that one. However, that in no way interfered with my reading enjoyment. The author gave enough clues to help you understand enough to get through this book. But, not enough to where you would not want to go back and read the first one.I will say that the one thing I didn't like is the HUGE cliffhangers that were left at the end. Number three better already be in the works! HA...

(3 1/2). This book will grab you from page 1. It is a terrific, highly believable story that Koryta delivers in his usual high energy, well crafted form. He throws in his usual dose of mumbo jumbo, but that is his style, and once you accept that you will start to enjoy his writing as much as I do. Super characters, both good guys and bad guys in this one, plus a little bit of family weirdness to make it all even more personal in nature. Koryta is one of my must read authors and this a serious va...

Rise the Dark is a sequel to Last Words. I suppose you could read Rise the Dark without reading Last Words, but why would you want to? Michael Koryta is such an extraordinary writer, you really don't want to miss an opportunity to read his books. Rise the Dark picks up soon after Last Words. Markus Novak is still reeling after his wife's murder. Now Lauren's killer is going to be released from prison. Markus goes back to the scene of the crime trying to dig up more information. He's not satisfie...

Before the pandemic hit, my daughter and I attended an author event at a wonderful INDEPENDENT bookstore in our hometown of Houston, Murder By the Book. As we were there quite early to get a good seat, we engaged in conversation with other attendees and a woman we visited with recommended Michael Koryta's books. I had never heard of him, but I found one on the shelf that night and bought it, and now I am on a mission to read his entire canon. So thank you, fellow book lover; I do not know your n...