Spoilers Dead Mountain by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

[Procutus]

Dead Mountain is the fourth novel by Preston & Child to feature the characters of archeologist Nora Kelly and FBI Agent Corrie Swanson. This story takes place four months after the events of the previous novel, Diablo Mesa and centers around an unsolved case based on the real-life events of the Dyatlov Pass Incident, in which nine hikers died under mysterious circumstances in 1959. What the two authors have done is transplant those events from the Ural Mountains in Russia to the Manzano Mountains of New Mexico in the present day, which allowed them some creative license with the story (such as changing the names and backgrounds of the hikers). Having read the previous novel and being interested in the real-life case, I was quite eager to get my hands on this one.

As usual, Preston & Child did not disappoint. They did their research well and the theory postulated at the end to explain the mysterious deaths is actually quite plausible. Both Nora and Corrie are fairly well defined characters, with Nora being the more level-headed of the two while Corrie at times comes across as being a bit impetuous. This is clearly not the last time these two will work together. I’ll be curious to see what interesting case they tackle next.

Although I haven’t really revealed anything here, I placed a spoiler warning in the header just in case a more detailed discussion evolves here.

For those wanting to know more about the actual Dyatlov Pass case, check out the link below, or if you have the History Channel app, the incident was featured on History's Greatest Mysteries, in the third episode of Season 3.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident

 

[Starkers]

I've done a fair amount of digging into Dyatlov Pass, in fact it's where I first heard of the concept of Paradoxical undressing.

Judging from what you've said I'm guessing they lean away from any supernatural/UFO related explanations? (which certainly the last time I looked into this the most logical theories were perfectly rational)

 

[Procutus]

P & C do touch upon some of the more exotic theories, such as UFOs, a Yeti attack and a few other outlandish things but in the end, their explanation (at least for purpose of this novel) was within the realm of possible (I did find it amusing that they kept referring to 'Yeti' rather that the two names the creature is more commonly known by in North America, Bigfoot and Sasquatch).



I don't want to completely spoil it if you plan on reading it, but feel free to PM me if you really want the deets.

 

[Starkers]

I probably will, my reading list is already long enough to take me to old age so I'm unlikely to get around to it

 

[Procutus]

I know what you mean... My reading list is a mile long, or so it seems, Right now I'm in the middle of a Cussler novel, then I think I'll order the first two Nora Kelly novels from the library. Nothing like working your way through a series backwards.