Michael Koryta Books in Order (Updated September 10, 2026)

Michael Koryta is an American novelist whose work moves between private-eye crime, psychological suspense, supernatural thrillers, survival stories, and historical fiction. He began publishing with the Lincoln Perry mysteries, later created investigator Markus Novak, and also writes supernatural novels under the name Scott Carson.

His bibliography is easiest to follow when the two recurring-character series are kept separate from the standalones. Lincoln Perry has four novels, Markus Novak has two full-length novels plus a shorter work, and the Scott Carson books form a separate publishing line rather than a shared fictional universe.

Choose the Michael Koryta route that fits what you want to read

• For private-eye crime: Start with Tonight I Said Goodbye.
• For Markus Novak: Begin with Last Words.
• For survival suspense: Read Those Who Wish Me Dead.
• For supernatural fiction under Koryta’s own name: Try So Cold the River.
• For his Scott Carson books: Begin with The Chill.
• Newest Michael Koryta novel: Die Famous, published in 2026.

Lincoln Perry books in publication order

Lincoln Perry is a Cleveland private investigator and former police officer who works with veteran investigator Joe Pritchard. These four books are the only full-length Lincoln Perry novels currently published.

1. Tonight I Said Goodbye (2004): Lincoln and Joe are hired after businessman Alex Jefferson apparently kills himself while his wife and young daughter vanish, leading the investigators toward Russian organized crime, missing money, and a family whose disappearance does not fit the official story.
2. Sorrow’s Anthem (2006): Lincoln becomes involved after childhood friend Ed Gradduk dies while fleeing police, forcing him back into the Cleveland neighborhood where they grew up and toward questions about arson, loyalty, and who benefited from Ed’s death.
3. A Welcome Grave (2007): The murder of wealthy entrepreneur Alex Jefferson’s successor in Lincoln’s personal orbit pulls Perry into a case that becomes especially dangerous when evidence begins making Lincoln himself look like a suspect.
4. The Silent Hour (2009): Lincoln investigates an abandoned luxury mansion built as a retreat for convicted killers who supposedly sought rehabilitation there, asking why the project suddenly ended and what happened to the people connected with it.

Koryta’s official FAQ says there are no planned new Lincoln Perry novels at present, although he has not ruled out returning to the character. For now, The Silent Hour remains the fourth and latest full-length book.

Why the Lincoln Perry books are worth reading in order

The mysteries are distinct, but Lincoln’s history as a former police officer, his friendship with Joe Pritchard, and his relationships with people from Cleveland develop naturally across the four books.

Sorrow’s Anthem is especially dependent on Lincoln’s past because it sends him back into his childhood neighborhood. Reading Tonight I Said Goodbye first gives his investigative style and partnership with Joe more context.

Markus Novak is a darker, more personal series

Markus Novak works for an organization that investigates disappearances and deaths in difficult environments. His wife’s murder becomes a major emotional force across the series, making the two novels more tightly connected than many of Koryta’s standalones.

1. Last Words (2015): Markus travels to the cave country of southern Indiana to investigate the death of teenage girl Sarah Martin and meets Ridley Barnes, the strange man who found her body deep underground and may know much more than he admits.
2. Rise the Dark (2016): Markus returns to the place where his wife Lauren was murdered and follows new evidence toward Montana, where a conspiracy involving attacks on the electrical grid and a charismatic extremist becomes entangled with his personal search for answers.
3. The Last Honest Horse Thief (2018): This shorter Markus Novak work expands the character’s world and background but should not be counted as a third full-length novel.

Koryta’s standalones show how widely his fiction ranges

Outside Lincoln Perry and Markus Novak, Koryta has built most of his career through independent novels. These do not need to be read in sequence, but publication order shows his progression from crime into supernatural suspense, survival thrillers, and historical fiction.

1. Envy the Night (2008): Frank Temple III lives under the criminal shadow of his late father and is pulled toward the man he believes helped destroy his family, turning revenge into a case involving deception, violence, and the legacy of organized crime.
2. So Cold the River (2010): Documentary filmmaker Eric Shaw is hired to investigate the history of a dying billionaire and travels to a grand Indiana resort town where visions, mineral water, local legends, and forgotten crimes begin to blur the line between research and the supernatural.
3. The Cypress House (2011): During the Great Depression, First World War veteran Arlen Wagner believes he can sense approaching death and becomes trapped with a young companion at a remote Florida boarding house controlled by corrupt and dangerous men.
4. The Ridge (2011): A lighthouse inexplicably built far from navigable water becomes the center of a Kentucky mystery involving a big-cat sanctuary, repeated deaths, and a supernatural force tied to the land.
5. The Prophet (2012): Brothers Kent and Adam Austin remain divided by the murder of their teenage sister years earlier, but a new killing forces the high-school football coach and bail bondsman to confront the past they handled in very different ways.
6. Those Who Wish Me Dead (2014): Teenage murder witness Jace Wilson is hidden inside a wilderness survival program while two professional killers track him into the mountains, forcing him and survival instructor Ethan Serbin into a violent race through wildfire and rugged terrain.
7. How It Happened (2018): FBI investigator Rob Barrett believes a confession from troubled Kimberly Crepeaux about a double murder even though local authorities dismiss her as unreliable, placing his career and judgment at risk.
8. If She Wakes (2019): College student Tara Beckley survives a crash but becomes trapped in a locked-in state, while her sister and others try to understand why people connected to the accident are being hunted.
9. Never Far Away (2021): Nina Morgan has allowed her children to believe she is dead because disappearing was the only way to protect them, but a new threat forces her back toward the family she abandoned.
10. An Honest Man (2023): Israel Pike discovers seven murdered men aboard a yacht off Maine and becomes an obvious suspect because of his own violent history, forcing him to uncover who arranged the killings and why.
11. Die Famous (2026): Set in 1937, the novel follows Savannah Cody as she pursues Edward “Nickel” Terhune, the father of her son and getaway driver for the notorious Brady Gang, across Depression-era America while FBI agents and outlaw mythology close in around them.

Die Famous marks a major historical turn

Die Famous is a standalone rather than the beginning of a newly numbered series. Its 1937 setting places Koryta inside the final years of the Depression-era public-enemy period, with bank robbers, FBI agents, family loyalty, and the lure of outlaw fame shaping the story.

Savannah Cody wants to find Nickel Terhune, but her reasons shift depending on whom she is speaking to. She travels with her son Alford and her father Wendell, a retired railroad detective, while Nickel runs with the Brady Gang.

As of September 2026, it is the newest novel published under the Michael Koryta name.

Scott Carson is a pen name, not another character series

Koryta uses the name Scott Carson for books that lean more strongly toward supernatural and horror fiction. The official Michael Koryta site lists these books separately under “As Scott Carson.”

1. The Chill (2020): A reservoir in New York’s Catskills covers an old town whose history refuses to remain buried, connecting contemporary danger with people displaced when the valley was flooded.
2. Where They Wait (2021): A journalist agrees to test a meditation app and discovers that its strange audio experiences may connect technology, altered consciousness, and something much older and more threatening.
3. Lost Man’s Lane (2024): Teenager Marshall Miller takes a summer job assisting private investigator Noah Storm and becomes involved in a missing-person mystery that exposes disturbing secrets beneath his Indiana hometown.
4. Departure 37 (2025): Cold War aviation mysteries and contemporary terror intersect when forgotten events involving aircraft and national security begin reappearing in the present.

These four books are not a conventional sequence with recurring protagonists. They can be read independently and should be organized under the Scott Carson name rather than inserted between Lincoln Perry or Markus Novak novels.

The supernatural books under Koryta’s own name came first

Readers sometimes assume Koryta created the Scott Carson identity because supernatural fiction was new territory for him. It was not. So Cold the River, The Cypress House, and The Ridge had already established his interest in ghosts, premonition, strange places, and the possibility that rational explanations do not account for everything.

The Carson name gives that side of his work a distinct identity, but it does not represent a clean break from themes he had explored for years.

The Last Honest Horse Thief belongs with Markus Novak, but not in the novel count

Koryta’s official bibliography categorizes The Last Honest Horse Thief with the Markus Novak series. It is useful for readers who want all available Markus material.

It should still be separated from the two full-length novels when counting books. The clean count is two Markus Novak novels plus one shorter companion work.

A publication-order tour of Koryta’s career

1. Tonight I Said Goodbye through The Silent Hour: Follow the development of Lincoln Perry and Koryta’s early private-eye work.
2. Envy the Night: Move into standalone crime.
3. So Cold the River, The Cypress House, and The Ridge: See supernatural material move to the center.
4. The Prophet and Those Who Wish Me Dead: Return toward grounded crime and survival suspense.
5. Last Words and Rise the Dark: Read Markus Novak’s connected novels.
6. How It Happened through An Honest Man: Follow Koryta’s later standalones.
7. The Chill through Departure 37: Read the Scott Carson books whenever you want the supernatural side of his bibliography.
8. Die Famous: Reach the 2026 historical standalone and the newest Michael Koryta novel.

Current series status in 2026

• Lincoln Perry: Four full-length novels. Koryta says no new novel is currently planned.
• Markus Novak: Two full-length novels plus The Last Honest Horse Thief.
• Scott Carson: Four published novels through Departure 37.
• Newest Michael Koryta standalone: Die Famous, 2026.

Questions readers often have before starting Koryta

What is Michael Koryta’s first novel?

Tonight I Said Goodbye, published in 2004, was his debut and introduced Lincoln Perry.

How many Lincoln Perry novels are there?

There are four: Tonight I Said Goodbye, Sorrow’s Anthem, A Welcome Grave, and The Silent Hour.

Will there be another Lincoln Perry novel?

Koryta says no new Lincoln Perry novel is currently planned, although he has not ruled out returning to the character.

How many Markus Novak novels are there?

There are two full-length novels, Last Words and Rise the Dark, plus the shorter The Last Honest Horse Thief.

Is Scott Carson a different author?

Scott Carson is a pen name used by Michael Koryta for supernatural and horror-oriented novels.

Is Die Famous part of a series?

No. Die Famous is a standalone historical novel set in 1937.

The simplest way to organize Michael Koryta

Read Lincoln Perry from Tonight I Said Goodbye through The Silent Hour. Read Last Words before Rise the Dark for Markus Novak, then add The Last Honest Horse Thief as supplemental material.

The standalones can be chosen by premise, from the supernatural atmosphere of So Cold the River to the survival pressure of Those Who Wish Me Dead and the Depression-era crime story Die Famous. Keep the four Scott Carson novels under that pen name rather than treating them as another connected detective series.