I knew when I saw If She Wakes by Michael Koryta that I wanted to read it. I own (and enjoyed) How It Happened and Those Who Wish Me Dead, so I appreciated the chance to read the latest offering thanks to Little, Brown & Company and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

In this latest thriller from Mr Koryta, a student named Tara Beckley is driving a visiting guest speaker to a conference at the college she attends. A grisly car accident leaves her in a coma and the visiting speaker dead. In a creepy plotline, Tara is really fully alert but can’t move a muscle. As she listens to people in her hospital room, she realizes someone wants her dead, but she has no idea why. (this reminded me of a fear my husband and I share of being given anesthesia before surgery and being totally awake and feeling pain but unable to speak, so we just have to endure it…yikes).

In a parallel plotline, the college hires an insurance investigator named Abby Kaplan to review the case, fearing some liability as a result of one of their students driving the car in which the guest speaker was riding when he was killed.  Abby is a former stunt driver who has come back to Maine after a car accident of her own left her boyfriend actor dead and her reputation and nerves in shreds.  She starts asking questions about Tara’s crash and she then has to go dark, hiding undercover while a hit man chases her.  

It’s wildly entertaining, requiring a small dose of willing suspension of disbelief, but those who are up for that will really enjoy this latest from Michael Koryta. Four stars.