This is a brilliant thriller translated from the Italian, set amidst the spectacular location of the Italian Dolomites in the Alto Adige, in the South Tyrol, an area I am familiar with and adore. New Yorker Jeremiah Salinger and his partner, Mike, famous for their 'Road Crew' features are hoping for the same success with their new documentary on a local Italian Helicopter Mountain Rescue Service. Jeremiah has recently located to Alto Adige, close to Siebenhoch, with his wife, Annelies, who grew up here, and their young daughter, Clara. Out on a mission, the entire crew with their rescued survivor perish after an avalanche hits them, Salinger is the sole survivor. Feeling and hearing the hiss of The Beast inside him, suffering from survivor's guilt and PTSD, Salinger is a broken man. He plays fast and loose with his medication, unsurprisingly, this hampers his progress. The only bright light in his life pushing him to recover is Clara. Out on a trip with her to the prehistoric graveyard that is the Bletterbach, he overhears a fateful conversation referring to a trio of gruesome murders that took place over thirty years ago. Salinger feels a look into the killings will help him to anchor his sanity, but has little inkling that his growing dark obsession will endanger his family and himself as the secrets of the past begin to raise their ugly heads in the present.
Salinger begins to gather information about the case, in the process upsetting locals unhappy about an outsider interfering with their business. Kurt, Evie and Markus were discovered in April 1985, horrifically and gruesomely murdered in the Bletterbach by a rescue team consisting of Max, Hannes, Gunther, and Werner (Anneliese's father), during a devastating storm triggering numerous landslides. Bletterbach is a place mired in myth and legend, malevolent and cursed, where an entire community, the Fanes, disappeared in the distant past, where locals took witches who never returned. Despite getting beaten up, and promising his wife to stop investigating, Salinger cannot let go, even as he tussles with The Beast that has taken up residence within him. His search takes him down numerous blind alleys. With numerous twists, Salinger follows the mystery until the truth emerges, a truth that just happens to be a little too close to home.
I found this a well plotted, exciting and gripping story that I just could not stop reading. The location is the strongest character with the forbidding mountains, ice, snow and storms. The local folklore such as the Krampus, is captivating, and the obstinate, insular local community that does not welcome outsiders is an authentic depiction. Jeremiah is a complex, compelling character, irritating, obsessive in nature, flawed, apt to forget his family responsibilities, but it is these qualities that lead him to uncover the secrets held by the distrusting locals, almost costing him everything he holds dear. I could not resist a quote from the novel from Jeremiah as a child: "Nothing bad could happen to me. I believed that up there in heaven, there existed a deity that protected book lovers from the ugliness of earthly life." Not true, but a wonderful thought. A book I loved reading and highly recommend. Many thanks to Quercus for an ARC.
