Title: |
An Honest Man |
 |
Author: |
Michael Koryta |
|
Category: |
Mystery / Thriller |
|
Rating: |
||
Date Reviewed: |
October 5, 2025 |
An Honest Man is the story of Isaiah Pike, a man who has recently been released from prison after serving a long sentence for murder. Pike returns to
his home town, Salvation Point Island, and tries to resume his life as a fisherman. At the beginning of the novel, he spies a yacht on the open ocean that appears to be adrift. Pike jumps
into his skiff and rows out to the apparently unmanned craft to keep it from crashing into the shore rocks. But when he climbs aboard, Pike discovers a scene of exceptional brutality. There
are seven dead men aboard, and all have been shot. No one is alive, so who was the shooter? Pike radios in his gruesome discovery, and soon the boat is swarming with officers of the law.
Naturally, since Pike was once sentenced for murder, he immediately becomes the primary suspect.
Though most of the novel focuses on Pike, there are also a good number of chapters telling us about twelve-year old boy named Lyman Rankin. Lyman lives with his violent
drunken father, Cory, and is regularly beaten. There is no one to protect Lyman, his mother fled years ago. When his father falls into a drunken stupor, Lyman will escape and hide in some of the
other abandoned buildings on the island, of which there are many. Salvation Point Island used to be a thriving community of fishermen, but the government declared a huge area to be out of bounds
for fishing; the government is trying to replenish lost fish stocks that have been decimated by climate change and over fishing. Much of the original population has moved away from Salvation Point, but the resentful
locals who remain call this off-limits-area The Lost Zone. When Lyman hides in one of the abandoned houses, he encounters an injured woman who is wearing nothing but a swimsuit. She does not speak
English well, and she is carrying a hatchet. There is a lot of blood on the floor. Pike is confronted by his uncle, sheriff Sterling Pike, and police officer lieutenant Jenn Salazar. Pike repeats his story about finding the boat adrift and the
dead men on board, but Uncle Sterling explains that the murder victims weren't just ordinary citizens, but two of them were actually candidates for Maine's Senate seat in the upcoming crucial election.
This is a gigantic story, and Sterling makes clear that he intends to put the blame on Isaiah Pike. Sterling hates Isaiah because the man that Isaiah killed was his own father, Charlie Pike - Sterling's brother.
When Pike and Lieutenant Salazar get a chance to speak alone, it becomes clear that they already know each other. In fact, Pike was a local informant for Salazar's
task force, which was investigating the trafficking of girls up and down the east coast. Salvation Point was a hub for smuggling of girls, drugs and guns, and corrupt sheriff Sterling Pike was at the
heart of all the illegalities. Meanwhile, Lyman has befriended the injured woman (she won't reveal her name, so Lyman mentally refers to her as Hatchet). It is clear she needs clothes, food
and some medical attention for her injuries. But it is tough for a twelve year old to gather goods without attracting attention. Hatchet gives him money to buy supplies, a big wad of cash - and Lyman
cannot help but notice that there is blood on the bills.
Koryta does an excellent job of building suspense in this novel. There are violent men involved - Sterling Pike, Cory Rankin, and a mysterious man who calls himself
Caruso. Isaiah Pike is no stranger to violence himself, he would not have survived prison otherwise. Both Pike and Lyman are enmeshed in circumstances without any seeming way out. Koryta keeps revealing new information about the murdered men on the boat and about Pike's past. This would probably
make a good movie. This is the first Koryta book that I have read, maybe I should check out some of his other novels.
|
