Monster in the Mountains

The Dylan Maples Adventures #4

by Shane Peacock

After his harrowing encounter with “The Reptile,” Dylan travels to British Columbia with his parents and finds himself under the spell of an even more frightening monster – the legendary sasquatch. In this excerpt his new friend Alice is along for the ride.

224 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2003

About the author

Shane Peacock was born in 1957 in Thunder Bay, Ontario, one of four brothers. He attended school in the northern town of Kapuskasing, Ontario, before attending university, where he studied History and English literature. A biographer, journalist, and screenwriter, he is also the author of eighteen novels, a picture book and three plays, and has been won and/or been nominated for numerous awards including two Arthur Ellis Awards for crime fiction, the Geoffrey Bilson Award for historical fiction, the Violet Downey Award, the Libris Award, seven times honored with Junior Library Guild of America selections, and has been on three shortlists for the Canadian Children's Literature Award, and one for the Governor-General's Award. His books have been published in 20 languages in 18 countries. He and his wife, journalist Sophie Kneisel live in Cobourg, Ontario and have two daughters and a son.

Series:
* The Dylan Maples Adventures
* The Boy Sherlock Holmes
The Dark Missions of Edgar Brim
The Seven Series

Awards:
Arthur Ellis Award
◊ Best Juvenile (2008): Eye of the Crow
The Arthur Ellis (2013)
The Violet Downey Award
The Libris Award
The Geoffrey Bilson Award
The Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Award
Anne Izard Storyteller Choice Award
Junior Library Guild of America Selection (7 times)
Governor-General's Award (shortlist)
TD Canadian Children's Literature Award (shortlist)

Reviews

[Digitally Lit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ariela- This is my favorite Dylan Maples Adventure so far! Monster in the Mountains refers to the supposedly dangerous creature lurking in the depths of the forest. Some know this creature as the sasquatch, some know him as Bigfoot. Dylan finds himself deep in the mountains of British Columbia looking for the sasquatch, along with his uncle, who the locals think is crazy. He also meets a new friend named Alice, and they all go sasquatch hunting together. For some reason, Dylan was afraid of the sasquatch, and I was kind of surprised by that because Dylan didn’t really strike me as the type to be afraid of things like this. But I guess with the events of the last book, he has a right to be scared. The thing that I really love about this book was that it all feels real and believable. I can believe that all of this happened a few years ago, and that there was a supposed sasquatch sighting in British Columbia. I loved the new characters that were introduced, Alice was cool, and I liked his uncle too. This book is so fun to read and I couldn’t put this down. And again, I’m going to compare it Percy Jackson. Dylan just reminds me of Percy a lot. He’s cool. The only thing I’m disappointed about with this book was that it was so short. I want MORE. MORE. MWAHAHAHA. HAHAHAHA.

I swear I’m not possessed by a book obsessed demon.
______________
Savannah:

Hello and welcome back to my reviews of the « Dylan Maples Adventure Series » this is the 4th book in the series and it was a real page turner! I finally started book 5 today and let me tell you I’m so so sad for this series to end 🥲

This book started off with Dylan and his family in the car travelling to their next destination, « The Rocky Mountains. » Dylan is so excited to go on vacation after his frightening time in Alberta with « The Reptile. » Come to find out British Columbia is home to even realer monsters such a… Bigfoot.

We are introduced to fantastic new characters in this novel such as Alice (my favourite of Dylan’s friends) and his eccentric uncle Walter. Together they trek together to figure out if this mythical creatures is real or a myth.

I loved this book so it was a really fun read and it had a very interesting plot. I loved the dynamic between the characters and how the novel was written. There was so much details and it was a fun little suspenseful adventure that everyone should read! I didn’t really like the ending but it was still a nice short read that I recommend to everyone! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reason for Reading: next in the series

After the terrifying incident in the last book instead of taking Dylan home to Toronto his parents decide to take him to a resort in the BC wilderness to wind down and relax. He is introduced to his Great-Uncle Walter Middy, who used to be an all around circus performer but whose specialty was tight-rope walking. Dylan becomes fascinated with the Sasquatch tales and being in Sasquatch Provincial Park only flames his fires. The next thing he knows he, his Uncle and his new found friend Alice have sighted one up close. They decide to track it and the uncle brings along a video recorder to get the evidence on tape. Of course, along the way they meet bad guys who want evidence of the monster too, but they won't be happy with a video tape. That's why they include a group of snipers who have no intention of bringing the beast back alive.

Another action-packed adventure for Dylan and his new found "girl" friend, nothing remotely romantic as usual but this guy seems to attract girls like flies to candy! Having all the usual aspects I've come to expect from these stories, Shane introduces us to another area of Canada. This time the Harrison Lake area from the Harrison Hot Springs all the way along the Fraser River to well past Hell's Gate to the tiny town of Boston Bar. This is all new territory to me, though I did see a sign for Sasquatch Provincial Park on a drive to Vancouver once. Unlike the other books, this one did not inspire me to want to visit the area as I am not an outdoorsy mountain-type of girl, but still the descriptions of the area are wonderful and could certainly entice certain people to want to visit.

A fast, fun, thrilling read. But I will say that out of the four this is my least favourite as Peacock ventures into the fantasy world here in this book. While the others have all been fairly straight forward realistic fiction this one ventures off into the "unknown" for want of a better word. The author does deal with this and we have our feet firmly planted in reality by the end, but it does make this book a bit of an oddball in the series. Still a joy to read though and I'm sorry to see an end to Dylan Maples as this was the last book.

I have two non-fiction books left to read now. One Young Adult and one for adults, then I will have read Peacock's entire backlist! And I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of his latest Boy Sherlock book due out in Oct. '11