Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child deliver a chiller suitable for curling up against the autumn chill in “Dead Mountain” (August, hardcover). A comfortingly familiar novel more so than a groundbreaking one, this fourth entry in the Nora Kelly series (which I unofficially call the “Nora Kelly and Corrie Swanson series”) showcases what the duos – the leading ladies and the authoring pair – do so well.
Mystery at Halloween
The A-plot hook is an intriguing mystery. On Halloween 15 years ago, nine experienced winter hikers went missing in the Manzano Mountains of New Mexico. Evidence of the nature of their deaths suggests bizarre behavior, such as fleeing their tent by cutting out of the side, and not taking the time to put on all their cold-weather gear.
Amusingly but smoothly, P&C again bring Nora and Corrie together to investigate. Nora is an archaeologist based in Santa Fe who is starting to rival Indiana Jones for the number of archaeology-based adventures she goes on. These are more evidence-based than adventure-based, but we get a lot of mystery, conspiracy, and legal and political challenges.
“Dead Mountain” (2023)
Authors: Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Series: Nora Kelly No. 4
Genres: Mystery, thriller, science fiction
Setting: New Mexico, 2023
Corrie is still at the trainee level of the FBI, based out of Albuquerque, although “Dead Mountain” might be the book that pushes her to a higher level. Again, her assignment deals with archaeology, so she calls in her older friend Nora.
At first blush, it’s unlikely that Corrie wouldn’t have heard of the cold case from 2008, but P&C provide verisimilitude. In this day and age of so many hyped mysteries and conspiracies, it’s plausible that Corrie (who isn’t from the area) wouldn’t know about it – but then would go down an obsessive rabbit hole.
Broadly speaking, I figured out the mystery’s solution, but I liked an additional twist in the final act, plus a fascinating setting. “Dead Mountain” has structural parallels with the previous Nora Kelly book, “Diablo Mesa,” as it taps into New Mexico lore – in that case the Roswell incident, in this case something fictional. This one is slightly more grounded, although a fascinating author’s note at the end explains that this account is likewise inspired by a bizarre real-life event (albeit not in New Mexico).
Backcountry corruption
Another P&C trope features in the B-plot, wherein Skip protects his sister Nora from a bully sheriff (not the good Sheriff Watts – a slow-burn love interest for Corrie — but the bad one, Hawley, from the neighboring county).
We see how easily law enforcement can frame a citizen and ruin their life, something that I don’t necessarily enjoy reading, as it’s an all-too real-world horror. On the other hand, I trust that it will lead up to a tasty payoff – this time in a courtroom, a rare setting for P&C – wherein the villain’s buffoonish evil will be exposed in showy fashion.
In “Dead Mountain,” the authors again lean into the easy corruption of governments and institutions – including the FBI itself – yet they admire most officials. Some characters could’ve used more characterization; the B-plot’s clincher depends on us not knowing much about one key player (although the sequence is still satisfying).
The Nora-and-Corrie novels are starting to blend together since they all deal with the same themes — mysteries buried in the mountain West, and the cover-ups that make them hard to solve. But I can’t deny that I’m into these themes, and always up for spending time with Nora and Corrie and the people in their spheres.