The Storm King

""Deeply atmospheric, breathlessly suspenseful, with a ticking clock like no other--a terrific thriller."--Lee Child Haunted by dark secrets and an unsolved mystery, a young doctor returns to his isolated Adirondacks hometown in a tense, gripping novel in the vein of Michael Koryta and Harlan Coben. Burying the past only gives it strength--and fury. Nate McHale has assembled the kind of life most people would envy. After a tumultuous youth marked by his inexplicable survival of a devastating tragedy, Nate left his Adirondack hometown of Greystone Lake and never looked back. Fourteen years later, he's become a respected New York City surgeon, devoted husband, and loving father. Then a body is discovered deep in the forests that surround Greystone Lake. This disturbing news finally draws Nate home. While navigating a tense landscape of secrets and suspicion, resentments and guilt, Nate reconnects with estranged friends and old enemies, and encounters strangers who seem to know impossible things about him. Haunting every moment is the Lake's sinister history and the memory of wild, beautiful Lucy Bennett, with whom Nate is forever linked by shattering loss and youthful passion. As a massive hurricane bears down on the Northeast, the air becomes electric, the clouds grow dark, and escalating acts of violence echo events from Nate's own past. Without a doubt, a reckoning is coming--one that will lay bare the lies that lifelong friends have told themselves and unleash a vengeance that may consume them all. Advance praise for The Storm King "An elaborately layered, creepily atmospheric story that blends haunting legends and the psychological terror of a murderer on the hunt. A winning thriller sure to draw readers of Jennifer McMahon, Ruth Ware, and Michael Koryta."--Booklist (starred review) "Brendan Duffy owes me several nights of sleep, because once I finished the first chapter of his novel, I couldn't stop turning the pages until I'd read every thrilling, unsettling, heartbreakingly lovely last one of them. Duffy's novel is, on the surface, a gripping murder mystery--but beneath that lies a love story, a cautionary coming-of-age tale, and a devastating meditation on violence and loss. A whirlwind of intrigue, vengeance, and wild longing, The Storm King will sweep you off your feet and blow you away."--Robin Wasserman, author of Girls on Fire"--

"Nate McHale is a committed family man and a dedicated pediatric cancer specialist. But he has another side, a dark, manipulative persona he has struggled to leave behind in Greystone Lake, the Adirondacks town where he reigned as the untouchable Storm King, a rage-filled teenager who led his devoted group of friends on midnight vigilante raids, wreaking vengeance on those who crossed them. At the center of the circle is wild, beautiful Lucy Bennett, linked forever to Nate by the tragedy that destroyed both their families, and Nate's oldest friend Tom Buck, son of the chief of police, as open and earnest as Nate is veiled. Now a body has been discovered in the deep woods surrounding the town, a body that will lay bare the lies they have all told themselves and reignite the mystery that has haunted the town for fourteen years. And Nate McHale will come home at last, to find the truth--and the man he really is"--