The story begins with a mass murder on a yacht. Seven men are dead, two of them U.S. senators, and the perfect suspect is at hand. Israel Pike is infamous as a man who killed his own father. Elsewhere on the island, a young boy runs away from an abusive father and stumbles upon a derelict house. A woman greets him with a hatchet in her hand and the promise that if he makes a sound, she’ll kill him. How the stories of the boy and Israel Pike converge is what makes Koryta great. His use of atmosphere and his compelling characters keep the action moving to the very end. Again, don’t start this one if you have to stop to feed the cat or sleep.
