Thursday, July 2, 2015

The Mountain Story - Lori Lansens

The Mountain Story
Lori Lansens
Simon & Schuster, Jun 30 2015, $26.00
ISBN: 9781476786506

On his eighteenth birthday while residing with his aunt in her trailer, an extremely depressed “Wolf” Truly ponders about life’s unending cruelty.  He thinks about his late mom who died violently when he was a child back in Michigan and his wastrel father who was never there for him.  Already contemplating suicide, the severe injury suffered by his BFF Byrd has pushed Wolf over the edge.  Wolf takes the tram to Angel’s Peak where he plans to leap to his death.

On the tram with Wolf are the three Devine females: matriarch Nola, her daughter Bridget and her granddaughter Vonn.  They plan to spread the ashes of Nola’s recently deceased husband on the summit.  However, they get lost on a cold November night and adding to their fears Nola breaks her leg.  No longer contemplating ending it, Wolf and his stranded compatriots struggle to survive a wilderness filled with life threatening peril from the weather, the wild and Nola’s injury.

With a strong cast whose desperation and trepidations grow throughout, this is an exciting thriller that grips readers with a sense of urgency compounded by horrific choices needed to be made from the moment the leads get lost on the mountain.  Although the flashback technique detracts at times from the mounting suspense, Lori Lansens writes a dramatic terse winner.


Harriet Klausner

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