Detective Fiction, Thrillers

Spider Mountain

Name: Spider Mountain
Author: P. T. Deutermann
ISBN: 9781429987813

by P. T. Deutermann

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Overview

A huge dog came out of the woods from our right and lunged at my face. I ducked the snapping jaws by throwing myself backward hard enough to crack my head on the ground. The dog went over my head, landing in a heap, but then whirled around . . .

Summoned by a friend, ex-cop Cam Richter agrees to do a favor: investigate the assault of a young woman in a remote area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Cam knows the misty hills and shadowed hollers of the park, and his outdoor skills might break a case that local cops can't---or maybe don't want to---solve.
Cam has no idea how dangerous his search will become, because in this part of Appalachia, matriarch Grinny Creigh and her extended family destroy those who intrude into their web. The Creighs control the crystal meth trade and own just about everything and everyone in their neck of the woods. But they also operate a much worse enterprise, a dark secret that terrifies any children unfortunate enough to come within their grasp.
Blocked by a menacing sheriff with ties to the family, Cam is shut down and sent away, no wiser about why the young woman was attacked and what she saw. He returns, stealthily stalking the Creighs and their secrets, moving ever closer to Grinny's mountain house and what it might conceal . . . not knowing that his presence on her web has been detected, and that the Creighs are hunting him with creatures bred for that purpose and starved into relentless fury.
Spider Mountain features nonstop action, frightening night pursuits through deep wilderness, and a shocking finale---a masterful novel of suspense by the author of The Cat Dancers.

About the Author, P. T. Deutermann

P. T. DEUTERMANN spent twenty-six years in government service before retiring to begin his writing career. He is the author of ten previous novels and lives with his wife in North Carolina.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

Full of imaginative plotting touches, Deutermann's fast-paced sequel to his acclaimed 2005 suspense novel, The Cat Dancers, finds Cam Richter, formerly a lieutenant with the Manceford County, N.C., sheriff's office, now doing less stressful work as the head of a PI firm staffed with other ex-cops. Park ranger Mary Ellen Goode, Richter's more-than-colleague who was severely traumatized in their last joint inquiry, reaches out to him for help after a probationary ranger is raped and left for dead in a Smoky Mountains national park. Richter's inquiries soon reveal that the crime was tangentially related to a much bigger criminal conspiracy, possibly centered on methamphetamine sales orchestrated by a figure out of a Grimm's fairy tale, the evil Grinny Creigh, and her incestuous clan. The author's impressive ability to bring the remote Appalachian region to life bodes well for the health of this series. (Jan.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Ex-cop Cam Richter returns to the North Carolina backwoods for a blood feud with backwoods royalty. In a certain remote section of the Smoky Mountains, the Creighs rule by Divine Right. Just ask M.C. Mingo, sheriff in perpetuity of Robbins County. Better yet, ask the clan's matriarch, Grinny Creigh, who spins her gluey web over what the locals have learned to call Spider Mountain. Why is she called Grinny? Because she grins "the way a hungry witch grins at a fat little child who blunders into her cauldron room asking about lunch." Responding to an SOS from his park ranger friend Mary Ellen Goode, whose young protege has been brutally beaten by an assailant thought to be outfitted in Creigh livery, Richter, ever sensitive to his inner knight, turns up ready to slay dragons. He gathers up Frick and Frack, his brave and brilliant German Shepherds, and goes hunting where no one unapproved by the Creighs dares hunt. In response, the arrogant, supremely confident Creighs declare open season on Richter, expecting a quick and easy kill. But now they're dealing with the stuff of series heroes, and Richter vs. Creigh is a battle royal. Most Deutermann novels (The Cat Dancers, 2005, etc.) are character-driven. Here, slam-bang action outweighs nuance. The result is best for short attention spans.