"That's how it always is. In the ice, first you hear the voice of the Beast, then you die."

A wild and dangerous place. A gruesome 30-year old murder that has never been solved. A small town with lots of secrets and many different allegiances. A stranger, who becomes obsessed with solving the mystery. What more can you want from a book? D’Andrea skilfully incorporates each of those subjects into his intriguing novel The Mountain, set in the rugged and beautiful region of the Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy. I used to climb those peaks as a child with my father, so how could I resist a book that would feature both a murder / mystery as well as armchair travel into one of my favourite childhood places! And like our main protagonist, Jeremiah Salinger, I was soon completely obsessed with finding out the answers to the murder mystery, which contained that slight undercurrent of menace and hint of mystique that added an irresistibly creepy air to the story. D’Andrea is obviously very familiar with the setting of his book, and really brought the mountain to life for me. Even if you have never seen those rugged peaks, the book will take you there.

I admit that I picked up the book several times and put it down again, because I found the lead-up to the story quite slow and long-winded, and felt it could have done with some editing. The same goes for some middle passages of the book, which digress into background information that slowed the story down and was not all that relevant to me. However, once I got to the crux of the mystery, I was completely hooked, and D’Andrea surely packed in a few unexpected surprises! I loved the way the author describes the slow unravelling of the main character Salinger, whose obsession with the old mystery soon threatens to destroy his marriage and alienate him from his friends and family. The deeper he delves into the past, the more the mountain seems to fight him, which makes for a wonderfully tense atmosphere. As most characters are tight-lipped and somewhat unreliable narrators, I was never quite sure who I could trust, and all my theories were soon debunked as the story progressed. Personally, I loved the inclusion of the mystical element into the story, as I have found that wild places like the Dolomites have inspired local legends as long as there have been humans inhabiting them. D’Andrea has achieved the perfect balance between reality and legend, always pulling the story back to cold hard facts just at the right time, so I never once had to suspend disbelief. Small town dynamics are astutely portrayed, forming an invaluable part of the mystery, which added depth and credulity.

All in all, whilst a bit bogged down with too much detail at times, The Mountain was an utterly intriguing and compelling mystery which soon captured my interest and kept me reading on avidly, wanting to find out what really happened on that stormy night thirty years ago. And there were quite a few surprises in store along the way! With its irresistible armchair travel component, this was a must-read book for me that I would recommend to anyone looking for a multi-faceted mystery set in a wild and unusual place.

Book blurb...

An atmospheric commercial thriller channeling Stephen King and Joël Dicker, set among Italy's mysterious Dolomite Mountains.

Jeremiah Salinger blames himself.

The crash was his fault. He was the only survivor. Now only his daughter Clara can put a smile on his face. The depression and the nightmares are closing in.

But when he takes Clara to the Bletterbach - a canyon in the Dolomites rich in fossil remains - he overhears by chance a conversation that gives his life renewed focus. In 1985, three students were murdered there, their bodies savaged, limbs severed and strewn by a killer who was never found.

Salinger, a New Yorker, is far from home, and these Italian mountains, where his wife was born, harbour a close-knit, tight-lipped community whose mistrust of outsiders can turn ugly. All the same, solving this mystery might be the only thing that can keep him sane.

My thoughts…

I struggled with this story in the beginning. The story seemed to go off on tangents. I don;t mind when detail moves the story forward or has some bearing. That said, I am glad I persisted. I definitely enjoyed the read in the end (there was some skimming and I found the language/translations and names of the characters frustrating and jerked me from the story).

The character, Salinger, did end up making some horrific discoveries and there were some good twists towards the end. Not everyone gets their happy ever after in this story.