Breathless by Amy McCulloch

Journalist Cecily Wong has bitten off way more than she can chew. She's a mountain climber, new to the game, and best known for her blog about her biggest climbing failure. Her story about that failure is what attracted the attention of internationally famous mountaineer Charles McVeigh. Now he's invited her to interview him after his last leg of a record-breaking series of summits IF she too can reach the summit of Manaslu, the eighth-highest peak in the world. The leader of her team, Doug, seems to be very angry at her. Grant, another guy on the team, seems to be a loose cannon. But the rest of the team members and the team's Sherpa mountain guides all seem to want to help Cecily to either succeed to reach the top or at least get back off the mountain safely, to someday try again. But, not reaching the summit means not getting the biggest interview of her career, the one that will make giving up everything for this trip, worth all the losses.

An attempt like this is hard enough without suspecting that a murderer in on the mountain with you. She's heard rumors about McVeigh and they aren't good. That he might be cheating on his "clean" climbs, that people have died in his vicinity. Are those rumors spread by people jealous of his success? And now someone else has died right before they start the climb. At a time when Cecily needs to be at her best, she's having trouble sleeping, eating, and doing her best to stay focused on the climb, because she can't help also investigating all the strange things going on with the people around her. Is the anger and suspicion she sees and hears part of the stress of a climb that can take your life on the best days, is her imagination running away with her, is she going to mess this attempt up, too?

Breathless is a physical and mental state in this story. I'm glad to look at the successes of others with pictures and videos and read about them. The hardships, cost, and dangers don't make me want to be there. But this story puts us there with all the stress of the endeavor and then with the threat of a murderer on the mountain.

Thank you to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group/Anchor and NetGalley for this ARC.

Between 3.5 and 4 stars - What I loved about this book was the atmosphere. I felt like the author really put me in the setting of this ultra difficult climb in the Himalayas, and I was was caught up in that part of the story. I also thought the oxygen deprivation and the overall extremity of the conditions added a layer of tension and suspense that was effective. My main quibble was that it was so obvious to me whodunnit from the jump. It was so clear to me and that really took the wind out of the sails of the mystery for me while I waited for our main character to catch up

CW: microaggressions/racism; misogyny

Well this was an exciting Lock-Room style thriller! It reminded me of One by One a bit. I really enjoyed all the descriptive scenes of the mountain and climbing. I don't know a ton about climbing, and I thought the author did a fantastic job giving details to the reader to help them understand what was happening!

I thought this was a fun plot that had me excited to see what happened in the end!

Breathless is the book One by One meets the movie Free Solo. I requested this ARC because of the beautiful cover and the premise. A group of mountain climbers set out to hike one of the world’s tallest mountains but their adventure soon turns dangerous when the climbers begin dying, one by one.

I don’t know much about mountain climbing, so I appreciated how the author explained things without being overly technical. I also thought all the mountain talk made for some very atmospheric scenes! Overall this was a fun thriller, but it won’t be super memorable for me. If you’re looking for a fast-paced, wintry locked room mystery, I’d recommend this.

The first quarter of this book is a fascinating read full of information about mountain climbing and the daredevils who do it. We are introduced to our heroine Cecily and her mission to scale a mountain above eight thousand meters. Running from a bad breakup, on her last chance to keep her job, she is desperate to snag an interview with a celebrated climber. It all goes downhill from here. Ha ha, get it?

We meet an interesting cast of climbers, get a lot of explanations of various climbing terms and supplies, and then things slow down considerably. Although Cecily is more and more concerned about the death of a climber who never made it out of base camp, not much happens for quite a while. We learn more (too much more) about the intricacies of mountain climbing. And the story kept getting interrupted by her blog posts. Which I felt added nothing to the momentum of the murder mystery.

Finally, after multiple mysterious deaths and Cecily not able to convince anyone of her suspicions (of the wrong person), we are released from the mountain climber's handbook and given an unsatisfying ending with a villain that I had figured out by Chapter 7. (out of 57 chapters). The writing is perfectly fine, but I took off one star for the over sharing of mountain climbing info and one star for the ending which (minor spoiler here) left the murderer alive and well while everyone else was either dead or incapacitated. A most unsatisfying ending.

This was so real, you felt as if you were there. Cecily is a travel journalist and her next assignment is to interview the famous mountaineer Charles McVeigh. But he will only grant her the interview if she completes the climb with him up Mount Manaslu, the eighth highest peak in the world. I knew nothing about mountain climbing but learned quite a bit from this story.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Escape in this alpine adventure where the air is thin, cold and the mountain holds danger at every turn. And not just from the elements, but from the climbers as well!

“Breathless” by Amy McCulloch is a thriller set in Manasula, the 8 highest mountain in the world in Nepal. Journalist Cecily Wong has joined the expedition of famous mountaineer Charles McVeigh to write about his record breaking summits. And then people on the team beginning dying one by one…
While I found the mystery fascinating, my favorite part of the novel was what I learned about mountaineering, it was a well researched book.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Anchor for the copy of Breathless.
I loved the mountain climbing storyline. I have never climbed a mountain or really even hiked, but I enjoyed the setting and the logistical information. This was an excellent adventure that kept me reading to find out what was going to happen next. The pace of the book was great and the writing really conveyed the feeling of fear and isolation at the end. Some of what happened was not a surprise, but some of it was. I never rate a book on whether or not I figure out what’s going to happen of course. I care more about the quality of the writing, the storyline, and the characters.
I never really connected to any of the characters, but I especially liked the relationship between Galden and Cecily and how Cecily and Elise bonded. I enjoyed how the other characters were depicted, both their good and bad sides.
I will be looking forward to more books by Amy McCulloch.
4.5 stars rounded up to 5

Is there a killer on the mountain? Under experienced climber Cecile will do anything for a story, including risking her life on a mountain, but she may have more to worry about than the natural elements. Who could the killer be? Who can she trust? In a situation where every breath matters, does she have what it takes to survive?I loved this book on so many levels. The in depth information provided about climbing and the mountains was so interesting and I really enjoyed learning about it. The characters and particularly Cecile’s internal struggles were well portrayed. And then the ascent! The journey to the summit of the mountain and the climax of the book were so well orchestrated by the author. It was am edge of your seat dance that brought you to the brink more than once for a terrifying ending that makes you wonder if you really know any of these characters. An excellent novel that I thoroughly enjoyed: Thank you NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Breathless by Amy McCulloch is an epic, adventurous thriller about a struggling journalist who gets the once of a lifetime interview with a famous mountaineer. The only catch is she has to climb & summit a mountain with him to get the interview.
This thriller let me breathless reading the adventure rooted in survival, add in a murderer & I was completely enraptured in this story.
I’ve done indoor climbing for a couple years so I feel like I have a healthy respect & love for any climbing, but combine outdoor & this level of it & it is mind- blowing. This set an intense landscape & vigorous schedule that was just perfect to create a mountain of a mystery novel:
This book has short chapters, which I always love & kept me on my toes throughout. Breathless is extremely well-written & I gave this 5 out of 5 stars!
To Amy McCulloch, congrats on sending this book. (That’s a little climbing humor! I’m a nerd, forgive me.)
To be honest, I have read quite a few mysteries in my life. I love trying to solve all the missing pieces, figure out the clues amidst the fear & tension & hopefully eventually put the puzzle together that creates such wonderful mysteries & thrillers. But after you’ve read a lot of mysteries & thrillers, they can start to blend together. Or at least for me they do, I have chronic pain & a chronically foggy brain so this could just be a me thing. My point of this ramble is to say that this book stands out! This is a book I will remember because it’s so unique in both the location & the reasoning for them being there. Climbing one of the biggest mountains in the world in order to interview a world-renowned mountaineer is not something that will blend with other mysteries.
I was completely transfixed with this mysterious adventure thriller. The anticipation of the dangerous climb was entertaining in itself & then you add in a killer & I devoured this in 2 days. I would recommend this to anyone who loves mysteries, adventures, the outdoors &/or just wonderfully entertaining reads!

Breathless by Amy McCulloch comes out May 3, 2022!

Massive thanks to NetGalley & Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.for giving me the opportunity to read an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger warnings: This book mentions &/or contains death, mountain accident, gore, violence, murder & avalanche.

Extra things I loved:
-“Be bothered.” I love that quote & the message behind it. It’s so smart.

I will post reviews to my Bookstagram & TikTok before publication & I will post to Amazon after publication. I will add links to the reviews after posting.

If you like adventure and are interesting in mountain climbing, this book is perfect for you. I have zero interest or knowledge of mountain climbing, so this fell flat for me. There was a lot of mountaineer language that I didn’t know, and I wasn’t invested enough to look it up.

I was intrigued in some of the mystery elements and it got really intense towards the end, but I just wanted to finish the book and move on! However, I think that if I was more interested in mountain climbing, I would have been hooked.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review and opinion. I enjoyed this book and found the entire mountain climbing story line extremely interesting. Lots of twists and turns and the ending will knock your socks off!

WOW! I really loved this novel. There was so much detail and description that I felt like I was there. I actually learned a lot from a thriller novel, I love that! I did guess who the killer was but not the story behind everything with Doug. Wow is all I can say. 5 stars!

How does one read something so fast? Like from the beginning to end it went by so fast because I loved it that much. Breathless was a breathe of fresh air for me. Thank you

Breathless
by Amy McCulloch
Pub Date: May 3, 2022
Knopf
Thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the ARC of this great book! What I liked best was the atmosphere that the author creates!! There are some awe-inspiring descriptions that transport you to Nepal and it feels like you climb the mountain with Cecily. It captures vividly the inherent dangers of climbing and the difficulties of altitude, you feel that breathless pain and it seems extremely authentic. There’s a good blend of characters and I like the contrast of the humor and good-natured banter and excitement at the start as they acclimatize compared to the seriousness of the actual climb. . There are some moments where it’s unbelievably creepy and if you add in the claustrophobia of being stuck in a hostile environment it makes it an absorbing read.
Great thriller!!
5 stars

Breathless is a fast-paced, unputdownable novel of survival at the top of the world. Cecily Wong is in the wrong place at the wrong time, trying to interview Charles McVeigh as he finishes his record-setting mountaineering trip. Cecily has joined the climb and is thrilled by the adventure, until climbers start dying and it becomes obvious that she is trapped on the mountain and could be next. Part action thriller, part survival story, Breathless is exactly what this book is. Highly recommended for fans of closed room mysteries and survival stories alike. Readers of Christina Henry's Near the Bone will love this one.

A thrilling novel full of pulse pounding moments and relatable characters. A few situations seemed a little far fetched and the ending was abrupt but an exciting book nonetheless.

Wow what a twisty exciting novel this was. It really grabbed me from the start to finish, on the edge of my seat, page after page.
There is a killer losing stalking their victims in the snowy mountains of Himalayan.
This would be a great storyline for a lifetime movie network movie.
I’d like to thank netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this one early,
Great book, be sure to download your copy May 2022.

This was a fun thriller to read, centered on the world of mountain climbing Cecily is a journalist who is headed to Manaslu, one of the highest peaks in the world, to interview Charles after he (hopefully) completes his climbing challenge. Cecily has been guaranteed the exclusive interview with Charles - but only if she successfully summits. Her anxiety is already high because of lack of climbing at this level, but very early on, a climber mysteriously dies. Cecily's suspicions are higher after a second climber dies, but now she's invested and starts investigating whether there is a killer on the mountain. A great page-turner.