Black Mountain

by Viktor Wolfe

New corrections officer Nathan Taylor finds his new job at the maximum security prison, Black Mountain, exciting, challenging, and a bit frightening. But once he settles in, the job is like any other; he gains some friends and even finds a new love interest. But Taylor has a dark side—a secret he has kept since childhood. It is not until he encounters inmate Knight that that secret gets exploited and ripped apart; it is not until he experiences signs of stigmata that his life begins to spiral out of control; it is not until he is caught up in the biggest and most violent prison riot in United States history that he discovers a part of himself that may have a tremendous impact upon all of humanity.

731 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 19, 2017

Reviews

[Susan Millard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was sent this novel for free from the author but he himself told me he wanted an honest review with no sugar coating. So here it is.

I gave this book three out of five stars. In Goodreads three stars say I liked it. Without giving any spoilers away I can tell you that on the author blurb on the back cover it says "Viktor Wolfe pulls no punches with his newest, in-your-face, adult thriller. Never before has there been such a blistering, brutal novel set in a prison environment." He is not joking when he says adult thriller. This is most definitely an adult novel; I would rate it for age 18 and above. There is lots of swearing, erotic descriptions and violence from one end of the novel to the other. In fact, in the Afterword, Viktor mentions that it contains 253,000 words in its 747 pages. No doubt prison is a place where all of this could reasonably be expected to happen but I am not sure every word of the descriptors needed to be written in order to get the idea across. I find descriptions rather on the heavy side. I was a little disappointed in the ending...it felt rushed and a little out of sync with the rest of the novel. He fleshed out the characters really well, so much so that I could visualize what they looked like if I closed my eyes. Sometimes I didn't want to close my eyes. The whole topic of stigmata was handled well including having someone from the Vatican coming to check it out. I found that part of the novel interesting. A little background on me is needed here - I am a Christian (not Roman Catholic) so I do understand all the signs of stigmata and how they occurred when Jesus was crucified. Another thing that is spread from one end of this novel to the other is references to the works of Stephen King (my favorite author) most notably The Green Mile which is his epic novel (and film adaptation) with a prison setting. Again, in the Afterword Viktor tells us that he has spent the past two decades working in a prison and that he "wanted to tell this story from both sides of the bars." I feel he has accomplished this since we get the perspective of not only the guards but also various inmates having to live behind said bars and deal with the realities of prison life.

So to sum up, I really enjoyed the story but found it much too heavy on the descriptions and the erotic descriptions were over the top for sure. It does involve the subject of stigmata but even those who don't believe could read this novel and understand how each sign came about since they are explained as they occur on our main character Officer Nathan Taylor. The main setting of course is the maximum security prison, Black Mountain, but there are outside locations as well which helps provide a bigger picture of how this prison fits into the community and brings other characters into play.

[Melly · Rating 2 out of 5]

And so, my first read of the new year brings me only my second-ever "B-A-N-A-N-A-S, this book is bananas."

Take it sleazy, Black Mountain, you certainly did happen!