The Prophet

Michael Koryta

Aug 2012 · Sold by Little, Brown

About this eBook

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 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."

Ratings and reviews

Koryta creates more suspense, emotion and creates a thought provoking look at how 2 brothers have dealt with the murder of their sister and how they will respond if the same kind of threat comes again.

The story had a good buildup but the climax and ending felt a little weak.

Very unexpected. Entertaining. Enjoyable and hard to put down

About the author

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.