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If She Wakes

Contributors

By Michael Koryta

Formats and Prices

Price

$46.00

Price

$59.00 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around May 14, 2019. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

Two women fight for their lives against an enigmatic killer in this electrifying novel from a New York Times bestselling author and “master” of thriller writing (Stephen King).

Tara Beckley is a senior at idyllic Hammel College in Maine. As she drives to deliver a visiting professor to a conference, a horrific car accident kills the professor and leaves Tara in a vegetative state. At least, so her doctors think. In fact, she’s a prisoner of locked-in syndrome: fully alert but unable to move a muscle. Trapped in her body, she learns that someone powerful wants her dead — but why? And what can she do, lying in a hospital bed, to stop them?

Abby Kaplan, an insurance investigator, is hired by the college to look in to Tara’s case. A former stunt driver, Abby returned home after a disaster in Hollywood left an actor dead and her own reputation — and nerves — shattered. Despite the fog of trauma, she can tell that Tara’s car crash was no accident. When she starts asking questions, things quickly spin out of control, leaving Abby on the run and a mysterious young hit man named Dax Blackwell hard on her heels.

Full of pulse-pounding tension, If She Wakes is a searing, breakneck thriller from the genre’s “best of the best” (Michael Connelly).

  • "An edgy suspense story...that brilliantly plays on the primal fear of being buried alive."
    Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review
  • One of South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Best Mystery Books of 2019!
  • "Multi-award winning author Michael Koryta again shows his affinity for smoothly melding sophisticated action with solid character development - even when one of the individuals is in a coma... Koryta is such a polished writer that his plots zip by as he delves into the amorality of Dax and the humanity of Abby and Tara, whose personality emerges, despite being paralyzed. Believable twists propel the tense "If She Wakes" as it moves to a surprising finale."
    Associated Press
  • "Another superb effort...a nail-biter throughout."
    Chicago Tribune
  • "In If She Wakes Michael Koryta gives readers not one or two but four formidable female leads...Koryta writes them with confidence, and each is someone to be reckoned with."
    Shelf Awareness
  • "Koryta keeps the action fast and furious, tempered with his characters' determination to persevere against all odds."
    Bookpage
  • "A good thriller to kick up your feet and read."
    BookRiot
  • "Adept at creating Hitchcockian moments, Koryta keeps the suspense high throughout."
    Publisher's Weekly
  • "It's a measure of how good this book is that the chilling, masterfully sustained suspense is only one of its standout achievements. Koryta never brushes off anyone's death; he makes you feel for the victims. The relationship between Tara and her sibling is beautifully nuanced, full of revealing details going back to their childhood. Koryta has never been better than with this knuckle-biting thriller."
    Kirkus
  • "it's the human element, the stories of two young women trying to reclaim their lives, that makes If She Wakes so compelling."
    Tampa Bay Times
  • "Koryta tries his hand at psychological suspense with excellent results."
    Crime Reads
  • "Instantly gripping, with realistic action, a breath-snatching twist, and a few untied ends that hopefully signal a sequel."
    Booklist

On Sale
May 14, 2019
Page Count
560 pages
ISBN-13
9780316454148

Michael Koryta

About the Author

Michael Koryta is the New York Times bestselling author of 12 suspense novels, including Rise the DarkLast Words, Those Who Wish Me Dead, The ProphetThe Ridge, and So Cold The River.  His work has been praised by Stephen King, Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Dean Koontz, James Patterson, Dennis Lehane, Daniel Woodrell, Ron Rash, and Scott Smith among many others, and has been translated into more than 20 languages. His books have won or been nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Edgar® Award, Shamus Award, Barry Award, Quill Award, International Thriller Writers Award, and the Golden Dagger.

Before turning to writing full-time, Koryta worked as a private investigator, a newspaper reporter, and taught at the Indiana University School of Journalism. Koryta’s first novel, the Edgar-nominated Tonight I Said Goodbye, was accepted for publication when he was 20 years old. He wrote his first two published novels before graduating from college, and was published in nearly 10 languages before he fulfilled the “writing requirement ” classes required for his diploma.

Koryta was raised in Bloomington, Indiana, where he graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.

Koryta and his wife, Christine, divide their time between Bloomington and Camden, Maine, with a cranky cat named Marlowe, an emotionally disturbed cat named John Pryor (named after the gravestone on which he was found as an abandoned kitten), and a dog of unknown heritage named Lola.

 

Learn more about this author