"Michael Gruber delivers once again." ~Judy S.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Air and Shadows, the story of one man’s fearless quest for revenge among some of the world’s most dangerous criminals

Lauded as his #1 favorite book of the year, Stephen King advised President Obama, in the pages of Entertainment Weekly, to pick up Michael Gruber’s previous book, The Good Son. With an unforgettable hero, The Return is as exciting and provocative as Gruber’s best work.

The real Richard Marder would shock his acquaintances, if they ever met him. Even his wife, long dead, didn’t know the real man behind the calm, cultured mask he presents to the world. Only an old army buddy from Vietnam, Patrick Skelly, knows what Marder is capable of. Then a shattering piece of news awakens Marder’s buried desire for vengeance, and with nothing left to lose, he sets off to punish the people whose actions, years earlier, changed his life. Uninvited, Skelly shows up and together the two of them raise the stakes far beyond anything Marder could have envisioned.

As Marder and Skelly head toward an apocalypse of their own making, Marder learns that good motives and sense of justice can’t always protect the people a man loves. A range of fearsomely real characters, from a brutally violent crime lord to a daringly courageous young woman, a roller-coaster of twists and turns, and a shattering exploration of what constitutes morality in the face of evil, Michael Gruber has once more proven that he is “a gifted and natural storyteller” (Chicago Tribune) and shows why he has been called “the Stephen King of crime writing” (The Denver Post).

Judy S. says:
"Michael Gruber delivers once again. His novels are always compelling and wonderfully unpredictable. It’s as though you discover where the book is going next only as the characters themselves figure out where their lives are taking them.

This one involves a dad seeking resolution of grief in Mexico, the birthplace of his recently deceased wife. Their daughter ends up there also, and together with dad’s old Vietnam war Special Forces buddy, they all work out old issues, unearth the past, and look for the elusive wizard behind the curtain who will help them separate tale from truth, myth from fact. Even if doing so means finding out that which they are not so keen on knowing.

All the while – and the best part of the book – Gruber is exploring their relationships with each other. Who is tough, who is resilient, who is truly wounded, and who is stronger than anyone imagined.

Bonus: The Day of the Dead symbolism and rituals, in a lush Mexico setting, make for a good read this time of year."