In his tenth novel, Those Who Wish Me Dead (Little, Brown), Michael Koryta introduces us to fourteen-year-old Jace Wilson, who is present at a brutal double murder overlooking a rock quarry.

• Author: Durst, Will
• Position: Our Favorite Books of 2014 - Book review

In his tenth novel, Those Who Wish Me Dead (Little, Brown), Michael Koryta introduces us to fourteen-year-old Jace Wilson, who is present at a brutal double murder overlooking a rock quarry. Instead of going into witness protection, the kid is taken off the grid, plunked down at a Montana wilderness survival program run by a young couple. Of course, he is almost immediately discovered by the Blackwell Brothers, two of the creepiest villains committed to page in recent history. Relentlessly pursuing Jace, they manage to kill almost everything in their path. Throw in a lightning storm and a wildfire, and you end up with a most thrilling adventure by one of the finest practitioners of the mystery genre.

Recounting his life to someone he calls "Doc" (who may or may not be his therapist), a man who may or may not be named Andrew flits back and forth between fantastic anecdotes and arcane philosophy in Andrew's Brain (Random House), by E. L. Doctorow. The reader is never sure if Andrew is telling the truth, and if he isn't, who is he lying to, the therapist or himself. It's a mystery novel, but only in the sense that the mystery is Andrew. Without spoiling things, Andrew has done bad things. Or he hasn't. He no longer feels emotions and hears voices. But Andrew's voice haunts you long after...