Haunted by dark secrets and an unsolved mystery, a young doctor returns to his isolated Adirondacks hometown in a tense, atmospheric 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.
Praise for the storm King
"It’s always a good sign when a novelist is up to something weird. Brendan Duffy’s second book mingles horror, historical fiction, supernatural suspense and old-fashioned murder mystery, the rare phantasmagoria whose pieces click into a satisfying resolution...a gutsy, intricate, evocative piece of mischief, much closer than anyone usually gets to that particular spell cast by Stephen King."
—USA Today
“A powerful story . . . Former friends regroup when a secret kept for years comes to light, threatening the lives they have built. Brendan Duffy adds so many layers that those bare plot bones feel like an entirely new creature.”
—The News & Observer
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 last 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
"While THE STORM KING does share some elements with Duffy’s debut novel, HOUSE OF ECHOES, it is anything but a rewrite of that worthy work. This latest title is peppered with memorable characters who many of us will recognize from our own lives and who, from Nate’s viewpoint, carry the story as its pace increases exponentially from chapter to chapter... the reader reaches a point early on where it becomes all but impossible to put down. Be warned, though: Don’t start THE STORM KING without planning out a good chunk of time to read it in one sitting. You’ll use every minute of it."
—Bookreporter.com
"Deeply atmospheric, breathlessly suspenseful, with a ticking clock like no other—a terrific thriller."
—Lee Child
“Duffy follows his debut, HOUSE OF ECHOES, with a stunning literary thriller, which combines accomplished wordsmithing with startling twists…a tapestry of storm, pain, fire, and, eventually, redemption.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“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)
"Duffy’s sophomore offering again toes the line between thriller and horror in this tale that flips between coming-of-age and coming-home-again timelines. Smartly-drawn characters aren’t who they first seem, their layers revealed slowly like lightning illuminating a stormy night. The richly atmospheric setting crackles with tension between the hurricane bearing down and the past coming to light."
—RT Book Reviews
"This is writing of the highest order, a great novel as well as a solid mystery."
—Providence Journal
“Duffy has written a mystery that unleashes a well of emotions—from thrills and chills to heartbreak and sorrow. This is one tale that most definitely will keep readers hooked until the very end.”
—Suspense Magazine
“A haunting, wonderfully written thriller.”
—Criminal Element