Author: Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
Published: August 22, 2023 by Grand Central Publishing
Format: Hardcover, 388 Pages
Genre: Police Procedural
Series: Nora Kelly #4
First Sentence: Brandon Purdue and his frat buddy Mike Kottke sat on a rock underneath a big fir tree, near where their Jeep had skidded of a Forrest Service road into a ditch and run over a sapling.
Blurb: In 2008, nine mountaineers failed to return from a winter backpacking trip in the New Mexico mountains. At their final campsite, searchers found a bizarre scene: something had appeared at the door of their tent so terrifying that it impelled them to slash their way out and flee barefoot to certain death in a blizzard. Despite a diligent search, only six bodies were found, two violently crushed and inexplicably missing their eyes. The case, given the code name “Dead Mountain” by the FBI, was never solved.
Now, two more bodies from the lost expedition are unexpectedly discovered in a cave, one a grisly suicide. Young FBI Agent Corrie Swanson teams up with archaeologist Nora Kelly to investigate what really happened on that fateful trip fifteen years ago—and to find the ninth victim. But their search awakens a long-slumbering evil, which pursues Corrie and Nora with a vengeance, determined to prevent the final missing corpse from ever coming to light.(GoodReads)
My Opinion: The writing team of Preston and Childs does an excellent job of keeping the multiple storylines in this book distinct and engaging. The reader is bouncing around, in a good way, from one plot to the next, then back again, then on to something else, yet everything meshes. At no time do you feel that the authors are throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks. That type of plotting is too typical of many other writers.
I’m unsure if you need to read the previous books to get on board with this 4th book in the series, but I would suggest it to understand how Nora and Corrie came to be and how Sheriff Watt came on board. Or the impact of Corrie’s previous training officer, but it is necessary to know and understand where the team came from and where it is going.
This series is a step above most police procedurals since it combines history, culture, geography, and stimulating plotting.
Blurb: In 2008, nine mountaineers failed to return from a winter backpacking trip in the New Mexico mountains. At their final campsite, searchers found a bizarre scene: something had appeared at the door of their tent so terrifying that it impelled them to slash their way out and flee barefoot to certain death in a blizzard. Despite a diligent search, only six bodies were found, two violently crushed and inexplicably missing their eyes. The case, given the code name “Dead Mountain” by the FBI, was never solved.
Now, two more bodies from the lost expedition are unexpectedly discovered in a cave, one a grisly suicide. Young FBI Agent Corrie Swanson teams up with archaeologist Nora Kelly to investigate what really happened on that fateful trip fifteen years ago—and to find the ninth victim. But their search awakens a long-slumbering evil, which pursues Corrie and Nora with a vengeance, determined to prevent the final missing corpse from ever coming to light.(GoodReads)
My Opinion: The writing team of Preston and Childs does an excellent job of keeping the multiple storylines in this book distinct and engaging. The reader is bouncing around, in a good way, from one plot to the next, then back again, then on to something else, yet everything meshes. At no time do you feel that the authors are throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks. That type of plotting is too typical of many other writers.
I’m unsure if you need to read the previous books to get on board with this 4th book in the series, but I would suggest it to understand how Nora and Corrie came to be and how Sheriff Watt came on board. Or the impact of Corrie’s previous training officer, but it is necessary to know and understand where the team came from and where it is going.
This series is a step above most police procedurals since it combines history, culture, geography, and stimulating plotting.
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