Dead Mountain

By: Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell

Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

#1 New York Times bestselling authors Preston & Child return in the latest installment of the bestselling series featuring renowned archaeologist Nora Kelly and FBI Agent Corrie Swanson, where a fateful trip to New Mexico uncovers a case that may prove impossible to solve.

In 2008, nine mountaineers failed to return from a winter backpacking trip in the New Mexico mountains. At their last 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 body parts. 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.

©2023 Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (P)2023 Grand Central Publishing

buy the hard copy

worst reader I've heard. sound quality resembles an empty concrete hallway. nearly every man sounds the exact same, and it doesn't even sound like a real accent. nobody talks like this. the story is good, even though reminiscent of previous tales of corrie and Nora.

wish I could get a refund. I usually wait to the hard cover to read first and I wish I had again. ruined the immersion and any progress of character development.

Good book - bad choice of the narrator

It was very difficult to stay with the story because of the narrator.

I felt I was listening to my grandmother reading the lines of the big bad wolf.

Any time a male character was depicted, the female narrator tried to a have deep growly voice. Sounded pretty ridiculous.

I would definitely recommend skipping “romance” scene unless you want to feel you are a part of a Saturday Night skit.

I can’t keep going, The narration is dull.

The narration and production quality are really bad. Sounds like it was recorded in a can. I keep stopping a number of times. I want this to work out but it is going to take some time.

Not a Nora Kelly story

This isn't a bad story - it actually has a lot of great aspects. But it isn't about Nora Kelly. It focuses primarily on FBI agent C. Swanson. It is her path through events that drive the plot, and her fate that is at the centre of events.

The narrator is getting a lot of criticism in the reviews. I don't think she did that badly, but it IS difficult to tell her character voices apart at times. I would listen to the next installment with the samr narrator - she did okay.

The ending of the story lets down its potential. It wraps up too quickly (under 40 mins) and too predictably with no real twists or turns to make it interesting. And at the end of it all, Nora Kelly hasn't really been integral to anything.

Masterful storytellers

Another great novel by the masterful storytellers. I read the book and listened to the audiobook.

Best book ever!

I have enjoyed ALL of the books by these great Authors.
You better have some free time to keep up with this amazing story!🙏

Confusing story not helped by poor narration

I generally am a big fan of these authors, but I have to say I was underwhelmed by this book. I found it difficult to keep track of all the characters, and this wasn’t helped by the narration, which I found to be kind of wooden and uninteresting.

Big windup with quick finish.

The plot was good, although a bit tortured. One wild conclusion as to how the camping party died/disappeared is suggested, only to be eliminated in the next couple chapters. When it finally looks like you have an accurate conclusion, then comes the conspiracy and cover-up. The narration is good, although there are a couple characters voices that need work but that is always the case when a single narrator tries to give a unique voice to each of the characters.
It was the complete ridiculous handling of the corrupt Sheriff and the main characters brother, Skip who is charged with assault, attempted murder, larceny, fleeing and eluding etc etc which made me nuts. Spoiler alert here I have to discuss what happens in order to voice the issues. Skip is helping his sister the archaeologist and the native American characters remove the bones of ancestors who were found in a cave on federal ground where the bodies of two of the campers who were lost. As I understood it the cave was located on federal land and a federal act made it clear that the remains were the property of the Native American descendants who could remove them for reburial. It was the failure to get the necessary permits or paperwork which was the issue. (Easier to get forgiveness than permission motivates the characters.)
Issues? Oh my yes. First the sheriff assaults the sister after she refuses to leave the bodies at which point Skip who is recording the proceedings on his phone pushes the Sheriff back. Thus the arrest and long list of ridiculous charges.
In terms of theft there is no theft by Skip as he is removed from the property before the remains are removed. (The Sheriff and his deputy drive off with Skip leaving the sister and the others to continue to remove the descendants.) None of the people who actually remove the remains are charged with anything, which makes charging Skip as he was removed from the scene before the remains were removed from the property just goofy. Perhaps an attempted theft charge might stick. Next the remains are valued at $2,000. to $25,000. which is the limit set under the charging law. There is no explanation from the prosecution to establish the value of prehistoric native American remains and even the worst judge would have to kick the case because that is an essential element of the crime.
Next why doesn't the sister file a criminal complaint against the sheriff for assault? It could be done with federal authorities and I am pretty sure the facts as presented would be subject to federal jurisdiction, at least as to some of the charges anyway. Can you imagine the prosecution's joy as the sister doesn't do this? Just think about the line of questioning...."you say the sheriff assaulted you yet you didn't file charges?"
The video on the phone which was deleted by the sheriff is said to be nonrecoverable as there was no phone reception which would automatically upload the video to a cloud. Modern forensic technology makes almost everything recoverable and there is no discussion of why forensics failed here. Even if they couldn't recover the video they could in all likelihood show that a video was in fact deleted. Of course this isn't really a legal issue, but any decent attorney would have the FBI forensically examine the phone, not the defendant's attorney. Here the attorney just says it can't be done and that is it! Oh and the phone which is said to have evidence of the defendants guilt is given to the sister after a few days... HUH??
There is a "character" witness from the bar fight who the prosecution says they are going to call which would be absolutely not allowed under any reading of the rules regarding admissibility of evidence. The probative value is small and the prejudicial effect is huge so that type of evidence is rarely if ever permissible. When the court reconvenes however only the deputy testifies. and no mention is made of calling this witness. (Since calling the witness resulted in a 4 day continuance you would have thought it just might be mentioned, even if it was a statement that the Prosecution changed their mind.)
To prove attempted murder you have to show an intent to murder and direct but ineffective steps to its commission. At best there is an assault under the facts testified to by the sheriff and the deputy. The fact that there is some remote possibility that you might die from an assault doesn't automatically turn it into attempted murder. If it did EVERY assault would be attempted murder. You have to prove that the defendant intended to murder by his actions not just to knock the guy over. While overcharging a defendant in hopes of getting a plea to a lesser offense does occur, it is despicable and should be and is often censored by the Court.
Next after the sister testifies, there is ZERO cross examination from the prosecutor. That so rarely happens. And after all this nonsense, the brother gets off because without explanation but rather only through the defense attorney bringing in the Bible and reminding the deputy of the commandments he decides to immediately reverse what he just testified to on direct examination. No explanation from anyone while he has this complete about face and decides to testify truthfully. Did the defense attorney know he was a fundamentalist type Christian who if he was made to testify on the Bible would be unable to continue to lie or had he spoken to him and mentioned how testifying that the sheriff was lying would result in the sheriff being from his office thus opening the door for his possible appointment? (Swearing witnesses on the Bible has not been done in any court that I practiced, starting in the early 1980s.) Who knows, it is just dropped in the rush to finish the book.
Basically there is this really complicated, convoluted set of facts which just resolve them self with little discussion in the last couple chapters. It is as if the authors got tired of writing and decided enough is enough, lets just end it here. It is really weird. I actually thought I must have inadvertently advanced it a couple chapters and went back to check. So while it is a good enough story, it isn't great and if you are in the legal profession, the handling of the criminal case will make you grind your teeth!

Excellent novel!

Preston and Child always do a great job in weaving a suspenseful tale. This one was no different! The only thing that took me out of the story a little was the narrator’s rendition of several of the male characters, which all sounded like Nelson from the Simpsons…

Another winner!

4.5 Stars 🌟

Another winner.

I REALLY have found that I like this writing duo. I'm a huge fan of the Pendergast series and I have enjoyed reading their new spinoff series featuring Nora and Agent Sanson. This book is no different.

As usual, Agent Swanson gets involved in a unusual case and calls on her "maybe" friend, archeologist Nora Kelly. Agent Swanson is just now getting out from under the desk duty that she has been on since the last case that almost got her and Nora killed. She is given a new mentor (Agent Sharp) and they are called out to a cave where some bones have been found. She is to determine if the bones are human, and from this time - which would make it a murder - or if these are bones from the past, and therefore might have some historical value. The book takes off from there. Where the story goes is actually kind of crazy.

The one thing that I really liked was the fact that I had seen the photograph and the explanation of the actual expedition that this was based on sometime in the past year when the story came out in Preston & Childs monthly newsletter. They gave the details of the true teams circumstances and for some reason, that made this book all the better because it was based on events that really did occur.

I liked the way that they were able to build up the drama and kept the storyline moving throughout the entire book. I also will admit that I had no clue what to expect and when the reveal came along and we got the "ta da" moment, I was truly surprised.

I love it when that happens.

I wasn't a fan of the narrator, so while I did enjoy getting able to listen to the story in the audio format, the actual narrator did pull me out of the story on several occasions. I'll need to go and look up the narrator from the last couple of books and see if this was the same narrator.

All in all, another win for me. Now the wait begins for book 5 :)