Spider Mountain

Cam Richter, Book 2

By: P. T. Deutermann

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

Summoned by a friend, ex-cop Cam Richter agrees to do a favor: investigate the assault of a young woman in a remote area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Cam knows the misty hills and shadowed hollers of the park, and his outdoor skills might break a case that local cops can't - or maybe don't want to - solve.

Cam has no idea how dangerous his search will become, because in this part of Appalachia, matriarch Grinny Creigh and her extended family destroy those who intrude into their web. The Creighs control the crystal meth trade and own just about everything and everyone in their neck of the woods. But they also operate a much worse enterprise, a dark secret that terrifies any children unfortunate enough to come within their grasp.

Blocked by a menacing sheriff with ties to the family, Cam is shut down and sent away, no wiser about why the young woman was attacked and what she saw. He returns, stealthily stalking the Creighs and their secrets, moving ever closer to Grinny's mountain house and what it might conceal...not knowing that his presence in her web has been detected, and that the Creighs are hunting him with creatures bred for that purpose and starved into relentless fury.

Listen to the first book, The Cat Dancers.

©2006 P. T. Deutermann (P)2006 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Full of imaginative plotting touches." ( Publishers Weekly)
"Ex-cop Cam Richter's interplay with all these characters will keep listeners engaged, especially as the realistic dialogue is enhanced by Hill's vocal skills." ( AudioFile)

As strange a premise as Cat Dancers

Do these places really exist! This was my second P.T. Deutermann and I very much enjoyed it and recommend it. I like to start with the first in a series and read straight through so after Cat Dancers I immediately went to Spider Mountain, which was strange but also enjoyable. Do things like this really happen? Then Moonpool, which I do NOT recommend and suggest you skip entirely. The story is confusing and, in my opinion, badly written. It's only redeeming quality is the dogs. And I've just finished Nightwalkers, I liked it as well and will buy the next in the series when I find it. All that said, I always like Dick Hill and although his "female voices" are sometimes a bit like nails on a blackboard, he is one of the best!

Hooked me right away

This is the second book by P.T. I’ve read. I took a chance and I wasn’t disappointed. When Cam is asked to help a friend, he risks his life and his dogs to find the truth behind a young woman’s attack. That’s not the end of the story because it opens the door to a second situation; to find young girls being trafficked.
I have to tell you the plot and conflict kept me listening to the end not wanting to stop.
My only drawback is the narrator. He’s good except he drops his voice at crucial parts in a paragraph or sentence and you can’t hear what he said. His voice is low and when he gets softer the listener can’t hear him. It was irritating, but it was as if I’d skipped a paragraph here and there. As a writer all the words are important so the narrator needs to make sure to keep his tone up.

Many hours of Unpleasantness

I've decided it's hard to enjoy a narrated book, no matter how good the story is if the narration is poor. In this case both, were poor.
Land the plane! This book went on forever. The writing style lacked the depth I like to see from my characters. Lots of dialog that circled back to the same conflict over and over again..
The narration and overall production quality were really mediocre. Poor accents, poor replication of women's voices, and the annoying phone calls narrated through what sounded like a paper towel tube.
Finished it and now, I'm getting as far away as I can from both author and narrator.
Sorry guys,

Another Deutermann that drags on and on ...

His books don't end until each primary and secondary character has been shot and the proverbial horse has been beaten worse than the priverbial red-headed step-child. Love Dick Hill though!

The book that wouldn’t end.

Not enough story for half the time it took to finish this repetitive weak attempt at a novel. I’m all about taking out meth head and child trafficking types but this was so predictable and silly that even the main characters ( the shepherds) couldn’t save it.

Scotch and Silliness

Gee, A book rated by others so highly had me psyched and ready to have a great listen. I thought the plot premise was interesting. However, the author was overindulgent and went way way too far in my opinion; thus this book was truly silly and unbelievable. The characters became more and more ridiculous; the main character kept talking about drinking scotch every few sentences, and I just kept thinking, "shut up and just have a drink already". The female state agent, who although higher in rank than the male lead, along with other professional law enforcement agents, consistently deferred to the lead scotch drinking male. They all were pretty inept at tracking the bad guys, making one bad decision after another, maybe they were just too inebriated to do better. But I hung in there until the end, and it became a long haul after a while. I chose this book in a "three books for two credits" promotion..... and hey, sometimes you get what you pay for.

Entertaining, but stretches credulity

This book is well enough narrated to keep one engaged, but the plot and premise are so out there that I found myself listening for the action, not the story. Kind of like listening to a Lee Child "Jack Reacher" novel, but without the firmly grounded plot that Child does well.

Not sure I'd listen to another Deutermann, unless I yearned for really mindless entertainment.

OK Story

Meh. I am a Deutermann fan, so this review is given with hesitancy. His works are almost always worth the price, but some are lots better than others. His seven novels of World War II in WestPac are excellent. This novel, which takes place in the mountains of western North Carolina, is OK but nothing special. The end of the story was portrayed as a dialogue between the two central characters, the male hero and a hottie. In their dialogue they discuss their adventure and tie up all the lose ends. Yawn. I prefer a more action filled ending that couples with an action beginning. The story is still worth the price.

Sorry Mr. Hill But Even You Couldn't Save This Dog

Deuterman got famous somehow, of that 'how', I am not sure. Thinly developed protagonist, with a sort of clever ability to get himself into then out of endless, repetitive binds. It takes the gimmicky force of his sidekicks (Frick and Frack) to endlessly keep him from stepping off cliff after cliff.
These books are repetitive, redundant and poorly scripted. Character development is unforgivably thin and after two books at the same monotonous pace, I have had enough. Cliched and preposterous. If that's what you're looking for in a novel, then you have arrived.
There must be more than a handful of decent writers in this genre. The search continues........

This is a good book to skip

I stopped listening to this novel half way though. The plot just got to silly to continued with. This author has done much better in his other books. Pass this one by