The Mountain

by Luca D'Andrea, Peter Noble (Narrator), Howard Curtis - translation

An atmospheric commercial thriller channeling Stephen King and Joël Dicker.

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.

Audible Audio

Published June 15, 2017

About the author

Luca D'Andrea è nato a Bolzano. Ha svolto l'attività d'insegnante alle scuole medie. Nel 2016 il romanzo thriller La sostanza del male, è divenuto un caso editoriale pubblicato in più di trentacinque paesi. Con la seconda opera, Lissy, ha vinto il Premio Scerbanenco 2017.
E' sceneggiatore, documentarista e collabora come giornalista con i quotidiani La Stampa e La Repubblica.

Luca D’Andrea arbeitet als Lehrer an einer Mittelschule in Bozen. Außerdem ist er als Fernsehjournalist tätig und schreibt Drehbücher für Dokumentarfilme. Unter anderem drehte er 2013 für das italienische Fernsehen die Produktion Mountain Heroes. Gli Eroi delle Dolomiti, eine Dokumentation über den Alltag der Bergretter in den Dolomiten, die ihn auch zu seinem ersten Thriller inspirierte.
Unter dem Namen G. L. D’Andrea schrieb er drei Kinderbücher, die unter dem Serientitel Wunderkind erschienen. Der internationale Durchbruch gelang ihm jedoch erst mit La sostanza del male, seinem ersten Thriller für erwachsene Leser, den er 2016 veröffentlichte und der sogleich in mehrere Sprachen übersetzt wurde. Sein zweiter Roman Lissy erhielt 2017 den Premio Giorgio Scerbanenco.

Reviews

[Rachel Sexton]

I bought this book just before I went on holiday to Bolzano in Italy. This book is set there and the author was born and lived in Bolzano. I was not sure what to expect but wanted to read something that was set in the places that I was going to visit.
To my delight, this was a fantastic book from a writer I hadn't heard of - probably because he writes in Italian. I was lucky to find the hard copy book that had been translated to English. (Goodreads did not have the hard copy as an option - that is why it states Audible in the title of this review.)
I became engrossed in this book from the very first chapter! It is very well written and the author knows how to use words to create suspense as well as how to use expressive metaphors that were often quite humourous. And the story was as enjoyable as the writing which is not always the case with a thriller.
The story is about a journalist and documentary film maker who goes to the village in South Tyrol where his wife grew up. While he is there, he learns of unsolved murders dating back to 1987 and becomes obsessed with solving those murders. There are a host of suspects, most of them with a motive. There were many twists and turns in the plot! The author also includes interesting details about the geology of the area and some of the local traditions and customs. He also gave details about Ötzi the Iceman of Bolzano that is in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology. Reading about it made it worth a detour to see him. That was especially enjoyable for me as a visitor to the region!
I highly recommend this book and will be seeking out others from this excellent author!

[Len Northfield]

I tried, but I couldn’t. There was something about the writing, the excessive drama of the main characters, the ‘try too hard’ feel about the whole thing. I think, if I’d kept going, I’d have punched someone on the bus.

Maybe a good idea for a story, i don’t know, i didn’t get far enough in (90 pages). Also, the writer gave the impression that the mid 1980s were of a piece with the 1880s though, to be fair, he is too young g to remember what it was like.

Sorry, not for me.

[H]

It was ok.

An American script writer part of a 2 man duo who make documentaries, goes to Europe with new wife and kid, and is partly responsible for a helicopter crash on the mountain where everyone is killed except him, as he films a rescue.

Then he gets obsessed about a triple murder that happened in the past.

Naturally wife and kid end up caught up in it.