Back Bay Books, 432 pages, paperback, $15.00

International bestseller Michael Koryta knows how to plot a story. In The Prophet, his latest release, he takes what initially appears to be the story of a killer who slays a teenage girl in a small town and turns it into a complicated narrative that mixes psychological trauma, tension, old wounds, football, broken relationships, and a good dose of twists and turns. Sure, a solid, carefully constructed plot is precisely what you expect from a thriller, but attention to detail is something that’s missing from a large percentage of contemporary murder mysteries.

Adam Austin works as a bail bondsman in the small town of Chambers, Ohio. He spends his days looking for criminals on the run and what little free times he has in the arms of a woman whose husband is in jail. His brother Kent is the perennially calm, respected, and beloved coach of the local high school football team, a religious man, a father and husband, and hero in the community. Besides leading very dissimilar lives, the brothers have not spoken to each other in years after an argument culminated in a fight. They’re both somewhat comfortable with the silence, but that’s about to change.

When a teenage girl asks Adam to help her find where her father is staying after being released from prison, he has no idea that giving her an address will lead to her death. The horrific murder shocks the town, but it’s even worse for Adam and Kent. When they were teenagers, their sister was abducted and murdered while walking home. It devastated their family and filled them both with unspeakable anger and guilt. Now it happened again, and the details that emerge from the investigation connect the crime to the Austin brothers. An intelligent, cunning, and very dangerous killer is on the loose, and the siblings will have to come together to fight old ghosts, ensure Kent’s success in the playoffs after a great season, and try to stop the killer.

The Prophet is a fun read because, besides the attention Koryta paid to crafting a sharp plot, the characters are complex and multidimensional, and that makes the narrative simultaneously attention-grabbing and emotionally vexing. Adam never recovered from his sister’s murder, and his sanity is shaky at best. He lives in his parent’s house and keeps his sister’s room intact. Kent found solace in religion, family, and football, but there’s remorse just below the surface. Their personalities present an interesting dichotomy that makes them clash throughout the narrative and be at odds even when they’re working together toward the same goal.

The second thing Koryta does really well is keeping the mystery a mystery for the duration of the story. A combination of secrets, red herrings, and decisions that seem to be ideal but later turn out to be the opposite combine to make the ending a surprise, which is a rare treat.

Any novel that can keep you entertained for more than 400 pages deserves a read. However, The Prophet is not free from flaws. For starters, football plays a huge role in story. Since Kent is a coach, giving the game some space is understandable. However, it occupies too much space. Countless pages are spent discussing old, recent, and upcoming games, strategies, key plays, and players. Also, there are two instances in which games are narrated almost play-by-play. For a football fan, this is surely a delight. However, for those who don’t care for the game, those pages are a tedious distraction that bogs down the main narrative. Also, Kent’s religiousness sometimes walks the line between being a character trait and a preachy discourse.

The Prophet is a taut, suspenseful, absorbing read that brings together the best elements of crime fiction and weaves them together with plenty of emotional grittiness. There’s enough pain and rage to make Adam a likeable antihero, and enough tension and inscrutability to make every plot twist a satisfying experience. Fans of Koryta will probably put this one among his best novels, and beginners won’t find a better place to start.

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Gabino Iglesias is writer, journalist, and book reviewer living in Austin, TX. He’s the author of Gutmouth and a few other things no one will ever read. You can find him on Twitter at @Gabino_Iglesias.