“You never know when a mountain will turn on you. It’s not just your own life you put at risk up there.”

“There were even more ways to die on the mountain than she had imagined.”

How would you like to be a vulnerable mountain climber on a precarious peak with not only natural dangers to worry about, but a murderer?!

That’s where Cecily finds herself in Breathless.

But who is it and why won’t anyone take her seriously? Is it just altitude sickness affecting her judgment?


The Plot

Cecily, a journalist and inexperienced climber, has joined Charles McVeigh’s climbing team. If she summits the mountain with McVeigh she earns herself an exclusive interview which will finally kickstart her career.

McVeigh is doing the impossible— “climbing the only fourteen mountains in the world that stood taller than eight thousand meters without using supplementary oxygen, alpine style— and all within a single year.”

Manaslu, in Nepal, is his final summit.

But both mysterious deaths and harrowing rescues follow in McVeigh’s wake and Cecily sniffs out a darker story at play.

Can she figure it out before she’s next?


Interesting Background

As I was reading this one I was struck by the mountaineering jargon and the detailed descriptions of what was happening. In these situations I like to figure out what credibility the author has to teach me things about the subject matter.

Author Amy McCulloch climbed Mt Manaslu (the 8th highest mountain in the world) in 2019 and became the youngest Canadian woman to do it.

This book relates closely to a lot of her experiences. You can read more about that in this article.

Reading this book made me really curious about mountaineering and what it’s like to climb these dangerous peaks. I started looking for a documentary that would give me some more visuals to what she describes in the book.

I came across a Netflix documentary called 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible. It’s the story of Nims Purja who decided to climb all 14 mountains over 8000 meters in 7 months.

Sound familiar?!

[Well actually he did it in 6 months, 6 days and broke 6 mountaineering world records! He even climbed a mountain hungover.]

And it turns out, McCulloch was climbing with Nims when she summited Manaslu (before he started his project).

14 Peaks is really interesting and does give a lot of good information and depiction of life on the mountain. And just like Charles McVeigh’s project, Nims did rescue a couple people on his expeditions!

I do wish the documentary would have showed more about how guides ‘fix ropes’ and what the food, equipment, and tents were like, how you actually climb, etc but it was a perfect pairing to watch after reading Breathless! Would recommend.


Comments/Recommendation

As for the actual book, I thought it was pretty good.

It was a little reminiscent of Vertical Limit or Cliffhanger, but it had its own flavor and mystery and I like that the author had firsthand experience to write from.

It gets a little technical and since it pretty much all takes place on the mountain there are parts that feel a little slow or repetitive.

But there was definitely suspense up until the very end.

I’m not sure if I really liked the main character or not, but I’m somewhat biased against journalists in real life so that could be it. Regardless, I was still invested in finding out if there was a killer and if there was, who it was!

And I always appreciate a book that inspires me to google things.


One thing I pondered as I tried to figure this one out was— Okay, yes, a dangerous mountain is the perfect place to kill people and get away with it because people would just assume the person fell and there would be no investigation… but seems like an expensive method of killing and why would you put yourself in danger to also kill?

But then I thought about it some more and for one- people who would kill like this probably don’t have much fear and would be drawn to thrill-seeking type endeavors like mountain climbing. And two- if a person already liked to mountain climb and then realized they also liked to kill people then I guess it is more of a happy (ha!) coincidence that they suddenly had a perfect killing ground and alibi. That makes more sense than someone being a killer and then trying to find the best place to do it and saying- Yeah, I’ll just go on up to Mount Manaslu quick and see who’s around.

So if there is a mountain climbing serial killer, I’ve decided I can accept these terms.


There were a few paragraphs that annoyed me a little bit. I’m guessing because I was just coming off of reading Two Nights in Lisbon that was chock full of these references.

And after reading the afore-linked article, it sounds like these were written from personal experiences:

“She’d seen the way that men on other teams looked at her. Like they were assessing which one of them was going to lay claim to her.”

“That wasn’t in any mountaineering manual. That’s because they’re written for men, by men.”

“‘I think he’s a typical privileged public-school boy and a bit of a creep.’”

“They always think they want an adventurous girl, and yet when it comes down to it they want someone to come home to who will be wowed by their adventures.”

I’m a little bit tired of the whole ‘toxic masculinity’ dialogue. I get that there are some real douchebags out there but I don’t really enjoy reading books where the female characters are preoccupied with looking for it and assessing it in every area of their life.

I will grant McCulloch that being a woman on a mountain largely full of men would be a particularly vulnerable position and women should not have to worry about their safety in that regard.

Anyway.

If you have no interest in a mountain climbing thriller, you won’t enjoy this. But if that doesn’t describe you, I would recommend giving this book a try! I thought it was both suspenseful and interesting!


Fun Facts

Here are some things I found out in my googling.

- In order to climb mountains you have to pay for a permit. A permit to climb Mt Everest costs $11,000.

- Permits plus other Nepalese fees can make climbing Mt Everest cost $40-50,000 on average and even up to $100,000+! In comparison, to climb Manalsu it runs around $8000-13,000.

- Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first recorded ascenders of Mount Everest in 1953.

- Manaslu is the fifth most dangerous mountain in the world.

- For every 3 people who make it to the top of Annapurna (one of the 14) 1 dies.

- Western guides make $50,000 each climbing season but Sherpas only make $4000. (Part of Nims Purja’s intent with his documentary was to use an all Nepalese team and shine light on the amazing Sherpas that so many climbers rely on and the lack of fair compensation)

- Hallucinations while climbing mountains are more common than you think. Here’s an interesting article talking about these episodes.

- Nims Purja’s climb to Everest on the documentary was crazy to see how many people try to climb Everest every year. After he made the summit he turned around and took the picture below that went viral. I can’t imagine having to wait in line like this while perched on a mountain in the Death Zone!



If you like reading books with journalists, try:

- What’s Left Unsaid by Emily Bleeker
- The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes
- A Desperate Place by Jennifer Greer


**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

3.5 stars
It took me some time to get into this book but I do love mountain climbing stories. Mix that with a murder and mystery and it's a great combo. The climax of this book is pretty stellar. Very tense and edge of your seat stuff.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book! Absolutely loved it! The setting was incredible, I was hooked until the last page!

This one will leave you feeling breathless. It is an intense ride about Cecily a reporter that goes on a climb with Charles- a famous climber who has been known to climb without using the supplied ropes. As soon as she arrives at the base camp strange things start happening and one of the climbers does before even starting out. This one is more of an adventure book than a thriller.

Thank you Netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Breathless reminded me to never go on a mountain adventure. Ever. Whether it's for climbing, hiking, or even for a vacation. Just say no. There's probably a murderer up on that mountain anyway. Stay home, be safe, and drink some wine.

I'm not even sure how the characters somehow told themselves it was just a freak accident. Staying calm and living their best life on this mountain. Just no. If I was there, I would have freaked out, found an axe from somewhere, chopped down a tree for like an hour or so, and then build a canoe or something. All so I can just slide down the freaking mountain.

Screw being calm when someone dies. There's no way that was just an accident. Sorry, but really not sorry. I do not trust any of you. Enjoy the mountain murderer all by yourselves. Crazy ass suspicious people.

Since I'm not there, I had to quietly bite my tongue with all the decisions being made. Dumb decisions but eventually they were going to realize what was going on, right? Nope. It was way too late for any of them to actually know what was going on and who was behind it all.

In the end, I was shocked who was behind it all but not shocked someone knew before the big reveal. For the longest time, I kept thinking it could have been done by two people. So, yeah, it was definitely terrifying to read and yup - no mountain adventures for me from now on.

I was so excited for this book but ultimately it didn't live up to the blurb. Wasn't an edge of your seat thriller. And I was more interested in reading about the author's own experience climbing Mt. Manaslu in interviews.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amy McCulloch for the opportunity to read this book. As much as I hate to say it...this book is going to be a DNF for me. This weighs heavy on my heart as I believe that it is an honor to receive books from NetGalley. With that said, they also ask for your honest review.

So.....

I could not connect with the characters at all. I thought that most of them were self serving, pretentious and boring (if you will). I thought that the concept of this book was going to knock my socks off because I have never read anything regarding climbing. Uhhhhh...the language in reference to climbing was confusing and not explained; I even looked things up only to be even more confused!
I also thought that it was unrealistic for Cecily to be headed up this mountain with her limited experience with climbing. Honestly, the whole thing just didn't work for me.

I hope that NetGalley and the author will forgive me for this review. Please understand though, that these are only MY OPINIONS...one book that I don't like, does not mean that YOU won't like it! If it interests you, please give it a try. It was just not my cup of tea.

Again, thank you for the opportunity to read and review...I wish I could have liked it.

So here's the thing with this book. The premise is so good, with people unknowingly climbing a mountain with a killer. This sets up so much tension, because no one can just escape on their own. There's natural tension too, with threats of blizzards, avalanches, and slips.

But so much of this book was taken up by explaining mountain climbing and every single step that goes into an expedition. This is set up as a thriller, as it states on the cover, so I think the book should have been more thrilling. The ending itself is really well done and even scary, and I would have liked to see a lot more of that.

Breathless is a thriller that follows journalist Cecily Wong as she attempts to climb the eighth highest mountain in the world. Hikers start disappearing on her ascent. The book was a quick rest
read, but I found Cecily to be a frustrating character.

I read this book awhile back but wanted a hard copy before writing my review. I have that in front of me now… Breathless is a great thriller, it was even chosen as a BOTM choice. The scene is beautiful, eerie, breathtaking, and thrilling in itself and really elevates the story. Cecily is a great main character and you really feel what she feels the entire time. The author does a beautiful job writing the story and I can only compare it to the way Top Gun makes you feel about fighter planes. This was a great book, not my favorite but really enjoyable. I enjoyed the suspense but felt it more of a slow burn than what I was in the mood for which is really on me and not the author! I will be in line to check our her next book!

If you are a fan of adventure based stories, Breathless by Amy McCulloch is a great thriller. In case attempting to summit the world’s 8th highest peak isn’t enough of an adrenaline rush, try doing it with a killer on the loose. McCulloch kept me guessing with the story and the characters and the end for pretty twisty. I loved the mountaineering details weaves into the story—it really made me feel like I was there. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes outdoor adventure stories.

I love the mountains and I've always dreamed of climbing the mountains however this book was such a gripping story! I really loved this unique thriller story.

I must say this is my first book about mountain climbing (combined with murder, no less) and this story was packed with beautiful imagery. At times, I almost felt like I was on the mountain with the rest of the group. I didn’t see until the end of the book that the author had actually reached the summit of this mountain, Manaslu, and while she did it without a killer on the loose, her experience still made for a vividly written novel!

Cecily is a journalist, freelancing and struggling with money and her career. Then comes the opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to interview Charles, a man known worldwide for his mountain climbing skills. Having done all of the “regular” climbs, he has decided to take on the highest fourteen mountains in the world, all without safety ropes or supplemental oxygen.

These fourteen mountains are all over 8000 meters tall (as an American, that means nothing to me, but I assume that’s pretty high) and put climbers into the “death zone”. Without proper skills, supplies and Sherpas, people can easily succumb to the elements, become hypoxic and make one wrong step that will lead to the end of their life. Cecily is taking on this challenge because Charles made a deal: he would grant her this interview, but only after she has reached the summit of Manaslu with him.

The first half of this book is slooow … at over 50% in, the group still hadn’t started their ascent. This is, without a doubt, a slow burn thriller. Normally those can tend to bore me, but the first half explaining mountain climbing, the risks, the rewards, and then introducing all of the characters, was actually quite intriguing. As people start dying and strange things start happening, you soon realize that there are many people on this mountain who may be the killer.

Then the climb begins, and the book takes you to all new heights (sorry for the pun). My muscles almost ached along with Cecily’s, I felt her anxiety and exhaustion, I longed for the local dishes she was eating, and I was excited to see who was behind all of the awful things happening in the middle of nowhere. Will she make it to the summit? Will she stay safe, as an inexperienced climber? Will she find out who “the bad guy” is? Will she land the interview that will catapult her career to the next level?

All of these questions were answered, but with many red herrings, I ended up being surprised by the ending. This was definitely a slow read, but something about it was so original and interesting that I didn’t mind. The whole thing was entertaining, well-written and had truly breathtaking mental images. This book gets a solid four stars from me!

(Thank you to the Knopf-Doubleday Publishing Group, Amy McCulloch, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)

Breathless was my first novel by the author Amy McCulloch. There were lots of things I really enjoyed about the novel and lots of things I didn't, so I settled for a middle of the road rating.

What I most enjoyed were the descriptions of high altitude climbing and its risks. That aspect of the novel definitely kept me "breathless". The author did an AMAZING job of describing what climbers do and what the risks are, the importance of sherpas, and why people are driven to do these climbs in often miserable conditions.

What I didn't love about the book was its predictability. I figured out the mystery early on and kept hoping the writers would veer a bit and surprise me. They didn't ever really do that.

Despite its predictability, I definitely think Breathless is a book worth reading for its unique setting and the inherent thrills of the high altitude climbing.

After reading mainly urban fantasy for the last few months 'Breathless' was a welcome change...a breath of fresh (ice cold) air one might say!

I've always enjoyed reading about the arctic and antartic explorers of the early 1900's. I'm aware that Denali is the highest peak in the American continent, Everest the highest peak in the world and that the majority of the major peaks are located in the Himalaya range. Everest, K2, Eiger... but the only book I can remember reading about that involved one of these behemoths is 'The Eiger Sanction'.

'Breathless' is a suspenseful, informative read involving Manaslu, the 8th highest peak in the world. Our heroine Cecily, is a novice mountaineer and budding journalist. She's famous for a blog post called 'Failure to Rise' where she posted about her failure to summit ANY of the large European mountains she's ascended. And, on her last failure to summit Snowdon in Wales, a person died while attempting to help her. But now the apex mountaineer Charles McVeigh has invited her to witness his attempt to summit all 14 of the highest peaks in the world, alpine style in one year. Manaslu is his final peak. And if Cecily summits with him, she'll land the interview that will make her. But 8,000 meter peaks are killers and there's a suspicious amount of deaths happening among skilled alpinists in the 'dead zone' of 8,000 meters and above.

I was very impressed by the detail and descriptions of Nepal and the big peaks. Imagine my surprise upon reading the author's notes at the end of the book and finding that she herself has summited Manaslu. Explaining the wealth of detail and thoughts, feelings and impressions of the area.

The book keeps you guessing til the very end. I was fairly sure i'd pegged the culprit early on, (and was partially correct) but there's a lot of people on this peak with their own itineraries. It's the ultimate game of cat & mouse and it's always up in the air whether Cecily is going to survive either the mountain OR the unknown killer stalking the mountain.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This book was fine, but not as riveting as I hoped. The characters development felt a little lacking. A good idea for a story but perhaps not executed to its full potential.

This was an intense page turner. The setting and weather added to the suspense and though I’d never attempt mountain climbing I could imagine myself there. This was my first book by this author but I will be looking for more. Thanks to NetGalley for the privilege to read and review this book.

2.5 stars. I was hoping for a more fast paced thriller - it didn't really pick up until about 85% in. There was a lot of filler about mountain climbing and no real action. It wasn't a bad book, but I don't think it should be marketed as a thriller as it was pretty slow paced and did not really hold my attention until the very end. If you are interested in mountain climbing, this may be of more interest to you than it was to me.

What a joy and surprise to find a book on snow & mountain climbing! I am definitely one who loves reading about it but never would try doing it in real life. This is my kind of book with surprises, suspense, little of the romance but thrilling action packed also. I have to have lots of that for sure. I don't want to know what's going to happen in a book either so reviews need to just hint and not tell a lot when I want to be the one to read it first! The book has such a good story and interesting people who may or may not be the villain of the book, it keeps you guessing who that could be. Thank you for sharing Net Galley and publishers!

I wanted to love this but unfortunately I didn't. It felt very predictable. I was hoping for something more.